DEVELOPMENT OF NEW PRELIMINARY DESIGN METHODOLOGIES FOR REGIONAL TURBOPROP AIRCRAFT BY CFD ANALYSES

摘要

Since 2011 the aerodynamic research group ofthe Dept. of Industrial Engineering of theUniversity of Naples "Federico II" makes use ofthe University's computing grid infrastructureSCoPE to perform parallel computingsimulations with the commercial CAE packageStar-CCM+. This infrastructure allows Navier-Stokes calculations on complete aircraftconfigurations in a relative short amount oftime. Therefore, the software and the abovementioned infrastructure allow the parametricanalysis of several configurations that areextremely useful to the correct estimation ofaerodynamic interference among aircraftcomponents and to highlight some useful trendsthat could indicate how a specific aerodynamiccharacteristic (i.e. the drag of a component, thewing downwash or the directional stabilitycontribution of the vertical tail) is linked toaircraft geometrical parameters. Thus, with thechoice of a specific set of test-cases it is possibleto make a deep investigation on someaerodynamic features and, from the analyses ofresults, it is possible to extract and develop adhocsemi-empirical methodologies that could beused in preliminary design activities.In this paper, two investigations arepresented: the aerodynamic interference amongaircraft components in sideslip and theaerodynamic characteristics of a fuselage,focusing on typical large turbopropeller aircraftcategory.