Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a main field that contributes to the development of high efficiency aircraft. CFD accuracy depends on the flow solver and the meshing of the geometry, and while it is doable to determine why a certain solver is more accurate than another, it is much more difficult to discern why two meshes produce differently accurate solutions. A framework is presented to evaluate the performance or ``goodness" of a mesh and to compare meshes. The framework is composed of quantifiable mesh parameters which define a mesh, and three performance measures: functional accuracy, their order of convergence, and their behaviour under the adjoint correction method. Although it seems that the relationships between parameters and results are not trivial, there are trends from which optimal mesh parameters are deduced. The H topology performs best, and the most important parameters are related to spacings and cell quality around the aerofoil leading edge.

A key stage in the design-cycle of a military aircraft is the assessment of its vulnerability to hostile threat mechanisms. Such mechanisms inflict battle-damage to the aircraft structure and systems. This experimental investigation considered the aerodynamic consequences of simulated battle-damage to a two-dimensional wing. Key assumptions and techniques were identified leading to the modelling of both gunfire and missile fragmentation damage. Wind tunnel balance measurements were undertaken, together with surface pressure measurements and flow-visualisation methods. Force and moment results indicated extensive changes in coefficient values, whilst both smoke and surface visualisation paint successfully indicated the flow mechanisms present. Using these techniques the influences of damage and experimental variables were investigated, including damage type, size, location and Reynolds Number. Studies were also made into cases of multiple gunfire holes and the influence of internal wing construction. Results indicated that damage at quarter and half-chord locations gave greater coefficient changes than those seen for either leading or trailing edge damage. This was primarily due to reductions in the upper surface pressure peak due to through-flow. Such reductions were seen to extend in both a chordwise and spanwise direction. The flow mechanism identified indicated both similarities and differences to those of flat-plate jets in crossflows. Analysis of both gunfire and missile damage data lead to the development of a set of empirical relationships, which related damage location and size to coefficient changes.

Small wind turbines that operate in low-wind environments are prone to suffer performance degradation as they often fail to accelerate to a steady, power-producing condition. The behaviour during this process is called “starting behaviour” and it is the subject of this present work. This thesis evaluates potential benefits that can be obtained from the improvement of starting behaviour, investigates, in particular, small wind turbine starting behaviour (both horizontal- and vertical-axis), and presents aerofoil performance characteristics (both steady and unsteady) needed for the analysis. All of the investigations were conducted using a new set of aerodynamic performance data of six aerofoils (NACA0012, SG6043, SD7062, DU06-W-200, S1223, and S1223B). All of the data were obtained at flow conditions that small wind turbine blades have to operate with during the startup - low Reynolds number (from 65000 to 150000), high angle of attack (through 360◦), and high reduced frequency (from 0.05 to 0.20). In order to obtain accurate aerodynamic data at high incidences, a series of CFD simulations were undertaken to illustrate effects of wall proximity and to determine test section sizes that offer minimum proximity effects. A study was carried out on the entire horizontal-axis wind turbine generation system to understand its starting characteristics and to estimate potential benefits of improved starting. Comparisons of three different blade configurations reveal that the use of mixed-aerofoil blades leads to a significant increase in starting capability. The improved starting capability effectively reduces the time that the turbine takes to reach its power-extraction period and, hence, an increase in overall energy yield. The increase can be as high as 40%. Investigations into H-Darriues turbine self-starting capability were made through the analogy between the aerofoil in Darrieus motion and flapping-wing flow mechanisms. The investigations reveal that the unsteadiness associated with the rotor is key to predicting its starting behaviour and the accurate prediction can be made when this transient aerofoil behaviour is correctly modelled. The investigations based upon the analogy also indicate that the unsteadiness can be exploited to promote the turbine ability to self-start. Aerodynamically, this exploitation is related to the rotor geometry itself.

Formulations of optimization under uncertainty (OUU) commonly used in aerospace design—those based on treating statistical moments of the quantity of interest (QOI) as separate objectives—can result in stochastically dominated designs. A stochastically dominated design is undesirable, because it is less likely than another design to achieve a QOI at least as good as a given value, for any given value. As a remedy to this limitation for the multi-objective formulation of moments, a novel OUU formulation is proposed—dominance optimization. This formulation seeks a set of solutions and makes use of global optimizers, so is useful for early stages of the design process when exploration of design space is important. Similarly, to address this limitation for the single-objective formulation of moments (combining moments via a weighted sum), a second novel formulation is proposed—horsetail matching. This formulation can make use of gradient- based local optimizers, so is useful for later stages of the design process when exploitation of a region of design space is important. Additionally, horsetail matching extends straightforwardly to different representations of uncertainty, and is flexible enough to emulate several existing OUU formulations. Existing multi-fidelity methods for OUU are not compatible with these novel formulations, so one such method—information reuse—is generalized to be compatible with these and other formulations. The proposed formulations, along with generalized information reuse, are compared to their most comparable equivalent in the current state-of-the-art on practical design problems: transonic aerofoil design, coupled aero-structural wing design, high-fidelity 3D wing design, and acoustic horn shape design. Finally, the two novel formulations are combined in a two-step design process, which is used to obtain a robust design in a challenging version of the acoustic horn design problem. Dominance optimization is given half the computational budget for exploration; then horsetail matching is given the other half for exploitation. Using exactly the same computational budget as a moment-based approach, the design obtained using the novel formulations is 95% more likely to achieve a better QOI than the best value achievable by the moment-based design.

Atmospheric icing presents serious challenges to the development of wind power of the wind energy industry in cold regions. The potential detrimental impact on the safe operation of wind turbines and the energy harvest hasn't been fully understood and requires further investigation. This thesis presents the research on icing profiles under different weather conditions and their impact on natural frequency, fatigue life, and lift and drag of the wind turbine blade. The research aims to develop a further understanding of the effect of atmospheric ice accretion on the structural integrity and aerodynamic performance of wind turbine blades through numerical and aerodynamic investigations to address the challenges facing the industry. A 5-MW NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) wind turbine blade was selected for this study, due to availability of required geometric design parameters and experimental data for verification. The turbine rotor and its three blades were modelled and numerically simulated with commercial finite element software ANSYS. Three icing scenarios were chosen according to the ISO Standard and the corresponding icing profiles were developed to investigate their influence on vibrational behaviours of the wind turbine blade and rotor under different weather conditions. Icing loads were applied on the leading edge of the blade and natural frequency results were compared between clean and iced blades. It was found that harsh icing weather drove the natural frequency down to the near resonance limit, which could lead to significant issue on structural integrity of the wind turbine. The effect of atmospheric ice accretion with additional load due to varying wind speeds on the fatigue life of the wind turbine blade has been investigated. Significant reduction of fatigue life was found due to the increase of the von Mises stresses. Finally, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was carried out to investigate the effect of atmospheric ice accretion on the aerodynamic performance of typical 1-MW and 5-MW wind turbine blades. Results of the drag and lift coefficients and power production under different icing scenarios were obtained for five angles of attack. Compared with the results of the clean aerofoil profile, remarkable reduction in the power generation was observed due to the accreted ice at various aerofoil sections in the spanwise direction of the blade, demonstrating the detrimental impact of atmospheric icing on energy harvest for the wind energy industry.

This diploma thesis focuses on optimization of the flap for the ultralight aircraft Skyleader JA 600, which is produced by the Jihlavan s.r.o. company. Individual types of flaps used in ultralight aircrafts are described in the initial phase of the thesis. In addition, description of the plane of interest Skyleader has been conducted, while along with the basic characteristics the focus is mainly on its wing and flap. The thesis continues with detailed CFD method calibration task, which is mostly focused on the basic turbulent models comparison. The optimization task conducted within this diploma thesis includes CFD calculations to determine aerodynamic characteristics of the flap provided by Jihlavan company, and subsequent determination of its optimal position. An important part of this thesis is also evaluation of the load and strength of the flap in previously determined optimal position. At the end, the strength and fly tests of the flap in the new position are described.

The interaction of a shock wave with a boundary layer is a classic viscous/inviscid interaction problem that occurs over a wide range of high speed aerodynamic flows. For example, on transonic wings, in supersonic air intakes, in propelling nozzles at offdesign conditions and on deflected controls at supersonic/transonic speeds, to name a few. The transonic interaction takes place at Mach numbers typically between 1.1 and 1.5. On an aerofoil, its existence can cause problems that range from a mild increase in section drag to flow separation and buffeting. In the absence of separation the drag increase is predominantly due to wave drag, caused by a rise in entropy through the interaction. The control of the turbulent interaction as applied to a transonic aerofoil is addressed in this thesis. However, the work can equally be applied to the control of interaction for numerous other occurrences where a shock meets a turbulent boundary layer. It is assumed that, for both swept normal shock and unswept normal shock interactions, as long as the Mach number normal to the shock is the same, then the interaction, and therefore its control, should be the same. Numerous schemes have been suggested to control such interaction. However, they have generally been marred by the drag reduction obtained being negated by the additional drag due to the power requirements, for example the pumping power in the case of mass transfer and the drag of the devices in the case of vortex generators. A system of piezoelectrically controlled flaps is presented for the control of the interaction. The flaps would aeroelastically deflect due to the pressure difference created by the pressure rise across the shock and by piezoelectrically induced strains. The amount of deflection, and hence the mass flow through the plenum chamber, would control the interaction. It is proposed that the flaps will delay separation of the boundary layer whilst reducing wave drag and overcome the disadvantages of previous control methods. Active control can be utilised to optimise the effects of the boundary layer shock wave interaction as it would allow the ability to control the position of the control region around the original shock position, mass transfer rate and distribution. A number of design options were considered for the integration of the piezoelectric ceramic into the flap structure. These included the use of unimorphs, bimorphs and polymorphs, with the latter capable of being directly employed as the flap. Unimorphs, with an aluminium substrate, produce less deflection than bimorphs and multimorphs. However, they can withstand and overcome the pressure loads associated with SBLI control. For the current experiments, it was found that near optimal control of the swept and unswept shock wave boundary layer interactions was attained with flap deflections between 1mm and 3mm. However, to obtain the deflection required for optimal performance in a full scale situation, a more powerful piezoelectric actuator material is required than currently available. A theoretical model is developed to predict the effect of unimorph flap deflection on the displacement thickness growth angles, the leading shock angle and the triple point height. It is shown that optimal deflection for SBLI control is a trade-off between reducing the total pressure losses, which is implied with increasing the triple point height, and minimising the frictional losses.

The interaction of a shock wave with a boundary layer is a classic viscous/inviscid interaction problem that occurs over a wide range of high speed aerodynamic flows. For example, on transonic wings, in supersonic air intakes, in propelling nozzles at offdesign conditions and on deflected controls at supersonic/transonic speeds, to name a few. The transonic interaction takes place at Mach numbers typically between 1.1 and 1.5. On an aerofoil, its existence can cause problems that range from a mild increase in section drag to flow separation and buffeting. In the absence of separation the drag increase is predominantly due to wave drag, caused by a rise in entropy through the interaction. The control of the turbulent interaction as applied to a transonic aerofoil is addressed in this thesis. However, the work can equally be applied to the control of interaction for numerous other occurrences where a shock meets a turbulent boundary layer. It is assumed that, for both swept normal shock and unswept normal shock interactions, as long as the Mach number normal to the shock is the same, then the interaction, and therefore its control, should be the same. Numerous schemes have been suggested to control such interaction. However, they have generally been marred by the drag reduction obtained being negated by the additional drag due to the power requirements, for example the pumping power in the case of mass transfer and the drag of the devices in the case of vortex generators. A system of piezoelectrically controlled flaps is presented for the control of the interaction. The flaps would aeroelastically deflect due to the pressure difference created by the pressure rise across the shock and by piezoelectrically induced strains. The amount of deflection, and hence the mass flow through the plenum chamber, would control the interaction. It is proposed that the flaps will delay separation of the boundary layer whilst reducing wave drag and overcome the disadvantages of previous control methods. Active control can be utilised to optimise the effects of the boundary layer shock wave interaction as it would allow the ability to control the position of the control region around the original shock position, mass transfer rate and distribution. A number of design options were considered for the integration of the piezoelectric ceramic into the flap structure. These included the use of unimorphs, bimorphs and polymorphs, with the latter capable of being directly employed as the flap. Unimorphs, with an aluminium substrate, produce less deflection than bimorphs and multimorphs. However, they can withstand and overcome the pressure loads associated with SBLI control. For the current experiments, it was found that near optimal control of the swept and unswept shock wave boundary layer interactions was attained with flap deflections between 1mm and 3mm. However, to obtain the deflection required for optimal performance in a full scale situation, a more powerful piezoelectric actuator material is required than currently available. A theoretical model is developed to predict the effect of unimorph flap deflection on the displacement thickness growth angles, the leading shock angle and the triple point height. It is shown that optimal deflection for SBLI control is a trade-off between reducing the total pressure losses, which is implied with increasing the triple point height, and minimising the frictional losses.

Numerical solution of differential equations having multitude of scales in the solution field is one of the most challenging research areas, but highly demanded in scientific and industrial applications. One of the natural approaches for handling such problems is to separate the scales and approximate the solution of the segregated scales with appropriate numerical method. Variational multiscale method (VMS) is a predominant method in the paradigm of scale separation schemes. In our work we have used the VMS technique to develop a numerical scheme for computations of turbulent flows in time-dependent domains. VMS allows separation of the entire range of scales in the flow field into two or three groups, thereby enabling a different numerical treatment for the different groups. In the context of computational fluid dynamics(CFD), VMS is a significant new improvement over the classical large eddy simulation (LES). VMS does away with the commutation errors arising due to filtering in LES. Further, in a three-scale VMS approach the model for the subgrid scale can be contained to only a part of the resolved scales instead of effecting the entire range of resolved scales. The projection based VMS scheme that we have developed gives a robust and efficient method for solving problems of turbulent fluid flows in deforming domains, governed by incompressible Navier {Stokes equations. In addition to the existing challenges due to turbulence, the computational complexity of the problem increases further when the considered domain is time-dependent. In this work, we have used an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) based VMS scheme to account for the domain deformation. In the proposed scheme, the large scales are represented by an additional tensor valued space. The resolved large and small scales are computed in a single unified equation, and the effect of unresolved scales is confined only to the resolved small scales, by using a projection operator. The popular Smagorinsky eddy viscosity model is used to approximate the effects of unresolved scales. The used ALE approach consists of an elastic mesh update technique. Moreover, a computationally efficient scheme is obtained by the choice of orthogonal finite element basis function for the resolved large scales, which allows to reformulate the ALE-VMS system matrix into the standard form of the NSE system matrix. Thus, any existing Navier{Stokes solver can be utilized for this scheme, with modifications. Further, the stability and error estimates of the scheme using a linear model of the NSE are also derived. Finally, the proposed scheme has been validated by a number of numerical examples over a wide range of problems.