APPLICATION BRIEFS FROM FLUENT.

COM
Flapping Wing Flight
The flight of a fly is a 3D unsteady phenomenon. The formerly proposed features of insect
flight such as delayed stall, rotational circulation and wake capture deserve special attention.
Understanding these occurences has lately been an enthusiasm for some. It is exciting even
to visualize an airborne vehicle as versatile as a fly, soaring and hovering in the sky.

In order to investigate this type of flight; a dynamical hybrid mesh modelling composed of
600,000 cells is utilized. The wings of the fly are modelled as rigidly rotating about a fixed
point at which it is connected to the body.

The basic wing movements are shown on the

left.
While they are at the lowermost position; fly
rotates
them backwards. So the resultant cycle is a
combination of translation and rotation. The
insect is
assumed to be exposed to a laminar drag.

Let us now comprehend the different features of insect flight. In contrast to that of the birds;
insect flight is rather complex involving following features;
-delayed stall,
-rotational circulation
-wake capture
Delayed stall occurs during the translation of the wings back and forth (or during upstroke &
downstroke stages respectively). Since there is a high angle of attack for these movements;
the so-called “leading edge vortices” are created. These vortices in turn create an upward
suction helping the fly keep aloft.
Rotational circulation is the result of the rotation of the wings at the lowermost position. Being
not as significant as the delayed stall; it anyway has an non-negligible contribution to the lift.
The third mechanism to produce extra lift is called “wake capture”. As the wing moves
through the air, it leaves whirlpools or vortices behind it. Whenever the wing is rotated back,
it intersects with its own wake, capturing extra uplift.
All three phenomenons could be predicted and observed by the transient simulation of the
modelling. Furthermore the pressure distribution at the bottom of the wings is obtained as
shown in the next page;

The unsteady lift as well as the air drag during

a full cycle are calculated using the presure
distribution on the wings together with the other
simulation results. These results can also be
used in order to analyse critical flight conditions
such as lowering of the undercarriage at low
speeds.

-It is rather interesting that the flies utilize this sort of air flow properties to fly. It seems
engineers still have many things to learn from the nature.
-I could not comprehend the difference between the wake capture and the delayed stall that
well. Beacuse in both of the situations airfoils are created and used for uplift. May be the only
difference is the immediate use of airfoils in delayed stall.

Computer Simulation of Thrust Reversers

In general, it is not that easy to model a geometrically intricate part such as a thrust reverser
using the CFD modelling. Nevertheless the achievements about designing major componenets
emboldened designers to use CFD for this sort of parts as well.
The task of thrust reversers in aircrafts -as the name implies- is to reverse the direction of the
exhaust to forward. They are used while the plane is landing for deceleration.
There are some design constraints to be considered here;
-the exhaust rebounded from the reverser might impinge on the flaps, slats or the fuselage,
- the reingestion of the hot plume by the engine,
-the envelopment of the vertical tail by the plume which may effect directional control.
These are occasions that have to be avoided somehow so CFD simulation would do good
regarding all these. However, it is chosen to use an unstructured mesh rather than a
structured one regarding the time required. That is because it might have taken a week for
the CFD to complete the mesh othervise. The so-called unstructured mesh subdivides the
space in an easier manner to save time.
The image at left shows the thrust reversers in action; while they are in off position on the
right one:

While constructing the mesh a CAD/CAM model that had been previously prepared was used.
This model includes all main parts of the aircraft. The unstructured mesh was then
implemented on this model being composed of some 4 million cells. This took about 2 days to
complete the mesh.
There are several outcomes of using CFD modelling for thrust reversers. First of all, thanks to
the relatively short time requirement; many simulations can be carried out to find the
optimum reverser positioning. The reverser performance can be mapped against the power
setiing and the speed of the aircraft. Some expensive and time consuming tests such as wind
tunnel testing need not to be done extensively.

-It is not explained explicitly how the constraints about the design of the reversed have been
overcome.
-I also wonder why the reingestion of the plume by the engine might cause problems.
Heating Strategy for a Church
A team of consulting engineers were involved in the refurbismant of a chuch in Jersey, UK
lately. They were coupled by experts from Fluent Europe in order to find out the best heating
alternative to optimize the air flow within the building.
The building were of an unusual architecture that the floor area were smaller than that of the
balcony. So an underfloor heating system -as suggested by one member of the team- could
not be relied on solely. In order to propose a beter heating strategy the CFD simulation were
carried out. At the same time, the outside temperature were entered as a boundary condition.
As a result the velocity distribution of the air flow inside were obtained as shown in the figure
below;
 As seen in the figure the air flow at the bottom is
denser than . the flow over the balcony. Thus to
compensate for the lower . heating of the
balcony; the team decided to place perimeter .
heaters around it.