SSeMID · Stability and Sensitivity Methods for Industrial Design

Stability and Sensitivity Methods for Industrial Design

Aviation contributes to more than 2% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and its activity is increasing exponentially. In the absence of further measures, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from international aviation are estimated to almost quadruple by 2050 compared to 2010. It is obvious that an increasing environmental concern is everyday more present in the aeronautical community, industry and research centres, having a definite influence on the way the design of the aircraft of the future. Most of the environmental goals have a direct connection with the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft. Current aircraft are much more efficient than their original designs; and although the wing-body-tail configuration is still the standard shape for most subsonic commercial aircraft currently active, aerodynamic parameters have drastically improved. As an example, the lift to drag ratio has increased from 6 to 20, and noise emissions at take-off have been reduced as much as 40dB. Those numbers give an idea of the evolution towards more efficient designs that have been possible as a result of the combination of new methods and tools and a better understanding of the physics involved in flight. But still, the main limitation of current designs is related to unsteadiness; at the limits of the flight envelope, several not yet well understood phenomena occur; high angle of attack and maximum lift, buffet, flutter, transonic effects, turbulence, detached and highly distorted flows, or shock boundary layer interactions. Those phenomena limit the efficiency and security of current aerodynamic performance. Activities considered in SSEMID has allowed to advance in the development of new methods and tools able to understand those complex configurations where unsteadiness and nonlinear effects are dominant; making possible to uncover the underlying physics and to provide means to control them. Additionally, SSEMID has provide doctoral training to 16 new fellows involve in high level research on several scientific fields such as high accuracy simulation, flow stability, sensitivity and flow control techniques, and to apply their research to realistic problems that currently the industrial partners are not able to solve.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union