| Abstract | High-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) flow simulations were carried out to assess the sources ofaerodynamic support interference of an aircraft half-model with a T-tail empennage mounted in a wind tunnel in anattempt to improve how well a semispan model can represent the corresponding full-span aircraft. The Bombardierresearch aircraft configuration (BRAC) model was used, which consists of a fuselage, a fuselage to wing fairing, acruise wing with flap fairings, an engine nacelle and pylon, a vertical tail, and a horizontal stabilizer (HSTAB). Thestandard half-model support used at the National Research Council of Canada’s 1.5 m trisonic wind tunnel consists ofa wall-mounted splitter plate to remove a sizable portion of the upstream tunnel wall boundary layer and a two-dimensional peniche sandwiched between the model symmetry plane and the splitter plate. CFD simulations of theBRAC model mounted in the wind tunnel were performed using the Menter shear stress transport turbulence modelat a Mach number of 0.2. The CFD results for the standard (baseline) mounting arrangement compared favorablywell with the half-model experimental data. The BRAC CFD model was then modified to provide reference “full-span” data and to examine several alternate model mounting arrangements. All simulations were compared with theideal full-span reference simulations. Significant disturbances were found to be induced by the reflection planeboundary layer and primary horseshoe vortex on the flowfield surrounding the HSTAB, which had a direct impact onthe measured overall model forces and moments. |
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