Investigation of Aerodynamic Characteristics of a Generic Transport Aircraft in Ground Effect Using URANS Simulations

TL;DR

This study uses URANS simulations to analyze the aerodynamic behavior of a NASA CRM aircraft in ground effect, revealing significant changes in aerodynamics during banked landing positions, aiding better understanding of crosswind landings.

Contribution

It applies URANS simulations with the Spalart-Allmaras model to predict ground effect aerodynamics of a generic aircraft, validated against wind tunnel data.

Findings

Significant aerodynamic changes near ground in banked positions

URANS results agree with wind tunnel data

Insights into aircraft landing in crosswind conditions

Abstract

This paper focuses on computational prediction of aerodynamic and the flow field characteristics for NASA Common Research Model (CRM) in it's High-Lift (HL) configuration in close proximity to the ground. The URANS simulation with the Spalart-Allmaras (SA) turbulence model is checked for the quality of the generated mesh and compared with the available wind tunnel data. The obtained simulation results in the immediate vicinity of the ground demonstrate significant changes in the longitudinal and lateral-directional aerodynamic characteristics in aircraft banked positions, which is important for a better understanding of aircraft landing in crosswind conditions.