A programme of work is described whose aim is to improve the understanding of propeller-airframe interaction effects for a regional aircraft configuration. From the outset, the work was planned to be a combination of both numerical simulation and wind-tunnel testing, with the former informing and guiding the latter in terms of model and rig development, and then the latter providing validation data for the former. The numerical simulation performed is multi-fidelity in nature, consisting of both steady RANS solutions using an actuator disk approach and unsteady RANS with full propeller blade modelling. It is shown that for an actuator disk formulation which allows airframe interference effects to be taken into account, the modelling of the effects on the airframe due to the propeller are adequately represented, at much reduced cost compared to the unsteady simulation. Pre-wind-tunnel test, both flight and wind-tunnel configurations are simulated and analyzed, to ensure that the test will yield data which is capable of steering design decisions for the aircraft The wind-tunnel data obtained shows that the CFD is giving a quantitative match for wing performance, but only a qualitative match for propeller performance in terms of thrust and power.
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