The paper is primarily concerned with the modelling of aircraft manufacturing cost. The aim is to establish an integrated life cycle balanced design process through a systems engineering approach to interdisciplinary analysis and control. The cost modelling is achieved using the genetic causal approach that enforces product family categorisation and the subsequent generation of causal relationships between deterministic cost components and their design source. This utilises causal parametric cost drivers and the definition of the physical architecture from the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to identify product families. The paper presents applications to the overall aircraft design with a particular focus on the fuselage as a subsystem of the aircraft, including fuselage panels and localised detail, as well as engine nacelles. The higher level application to aircraft requirements and functional analysis is investigated and verified relative to life cycle design issues for the relationship between acquisition cost and Direct Operational Cost (DOC), for a range of both metal and composite subsystems. Maintenance is considered in some detail as an important contributor to DOC and life cycle cost. The lower level application to aircraft physical architecture is investigated and verified for the WBS of an engine nacelle, including a sequential build stage investigation of the materials, fabrication and assembly costs. The studies are then extended by investigating the acquisition cost of aircraft fuselages, including the recurring unit cost and the non-recurring design cost of the airframe sub-system. The systems costing methodology is facilitated by the genetic causal cost modeling technique as the latter is highly generic, interdisciplinary, flexible, multilevel and recursive in nature, and can be applied at the various analysis levels required of systems engineering. Therefore, the main contribution of paper is a methodology for applying systems engineering costing, supported by the genetic causal cost modeling approach, whether at a requirements, functional or physical level.

This paper aims to demonstrate the viability of using the large eddy simulation (LES) CFD methodology to model a representative, complete STOVL aircraft geometry at touch down. The flowfield beneath such a jet-borne vertical landing aircraft is inherently unsteady. Hence, it is argued in the present work that the LES technique is the most suitable tool to predict both the mean flow and unsteady fluctuations, and, with further development and validation testing, this approach could be a replacement, and certainly a complementary aid, to expensive rig programmes. The numerical method uses a compressible solver on a mixed element unstructured mesh. Examination of instantaneous flowfield predictions from these LES calculations indicate close similarity with many flow features identified from ground effect flow visualisations, which are well known to be difficult to model using RANS-based CFD. Whilst significant further work needs to be carried out, these calculations show that LES could be a practical tool to model, for example, Hot Gas Ingestion for the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

An account that is to be of any value of a subject in such an early stage of development as the use of synthetic resin materials in aircraft construction, must necessarily contain a great many first thoughts and rough guesses, and anyone writing such an account must be prepared to take the risk of having to eat his words at a later date. But I believe it is better to have blundered than never to have thought at all, and it is my hope that what I have to say will at least arouse interest enough among those with special knowledge to contribute to the discussion at the end of the lecture.

This report gives extended data for the flow past roughness trips to provoke boundary-layer transition. This first Part reports work on wire trips giving data for the forces on the wire, the positions of recovery and effective origin of the turbulent layer, the length of the separation bubble and the beginning and end of transition. Parts 2 and 3 describe similar work on spherical roughness trips, used singly and in rows, looking in more detail at the spanwise variations in the downstream boundary-layer.

The paper identifies speed, agility, human interface, generation of sensitivity information, task decomposition, and data transmission (including storage) as important attributes for a computer environment to have in order to support engineering design effectively. It is argued that when examined in terms of these attributes the presently available environment can be shown to be inadequate. A radical improvement is needed, and it may be achieved by combining new methods that have recently emerged from multidisciplinary design optimisation (MDO) with massively parallel processing computer technology. The caveat is that, for successful use of that technology in engineering computing, new paradigms for computing will have to be developed - specifically, innovative algorithms that are intrinsically parallel so that their performance scales up linearly with the number of processors. It may be speculated that the idea of simulating a complex behaviour by interaction of a large number of very simple models may be an inspiration for the above algorithms; the cellular automata are an example. Because of the long lead time needed to develop and mature new paradigms, development should begin now, even though the widespread availability of massively parallel processing is still a few years away.

A study has been made of the effect of inlet conditions on the performance of conical diffusers with 4:1 area ratio and 5 and 10 degrees total angle of expansion. The conditions at entry were varied by using different approach lengths of diffuser inlet diameter, and by means of projecting annular screens of woven wire cloth. With this new technique it was possible to vary the velocity distribution substantially within moderate settling lengths, and to produce velocity profiles with inflections. The suitability of the annular screen method of boundary layer generation for diffuser investigations was confirmed from the comparison with the approach length results.

Energy and pressure coefficients, as well as diffuser energy efficiency and the conversion efficiency, were found to depend on the diffuser angle β and the momentum thickness ratio at inlet θ/D0. The latter emerged as one of the chief parameters controlling diffuser performance. Variation in the inlet shape parameter H of the order of 20 per cent did not significantly affect the pressure recovery or the losses in the diffuser. For moderately thick boundary layers, θ/D0 X β<0·1, the diffuser angle could be eliminated as a parameter by plotting the pressure coefficient against θ/D0 X β. The Reynolds number based on diffuser inlet diameter was, for essentially incompressible flow, 2·5 X 105 in all tests.

The rapid increase in the demand for air transportation over the last four decades has led to serious capacity problems for both the airside and landside components of major airports. The efficient management of existing airside resources seems to be the most effective and practical approach to overcome these capacity and traffic flow problems. Although integrated management of aircraft parking position assignments and ground movement planning processes are vital for the effective use of resources and for efficient operations, the current practice is that these processes are handled separately by different agents. This study proposes a hybrid dynamic system, an integrated methodology of taxi path and gate assignment using a knowledge-based decision-making approach to model effectively time-variant and realistic operational features of aircraft gate management and route planning. The model assigns the most suitable parking positions with minimum taxi time and taxi delay among a reduced solution set, satisfying pre-defined decision criteria as well as monitoring ground movements and, if necessary, reassigning new taxi paths and parking positions in real time. Both the proposed integrated methodology and the separate gate assignment and ground management operations currently in use were implemented, analysed and compared in a fast-time simulation model of Istanbul Ataturk Airport (LTBA). The hybrid dynamic assignment model provided significant improvements in taxi times, ground delays and gate utilisation.

Mean velocity and first order turbulence measurements were obtained from a three-dimensional upwash fountain flow generated by the impingement of two compressible axisymmetric turbulent jets onto a normal plane. The jet impingement area and fountain formation regions were examined with data obtained through the use of particle image velocimetry. Seven configurations with different nozzle pressure ratios were considered to ascertain the influence of jet compressibility on the fountain development. Results indicate that the mixing of the fountain is dependent on the nozzle pressure ratio, leading to an increase in the fountain spreading rate with increase in nozzle pressure ratio.

Customer requirements and vision in aerospace dictate that the next generation of civil transport aircraft should have a strong emphasis on increased safety, reduced environmental impact and reduced cost without sacrificing performance. In this context, the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Queen’s University of Belfast and Bombardier have, in recent years, been conducting research into some of the key aerodynamic technologies for the next generation of aircraft engine nacelles. Investigations have been performed into anti-icing technology, efficient thrust reversal, engine fire zone safety, life cycle cost and integration of the foregoing with other considerations in engine and aircraft design. A unique correlation for heat transfer in an anti-icing system has been developed. The effect of normal vibration on heat transfer in such systems has been found to be negligible. It has been shown that carefully designed natural blockage thrust reversers without a cascade can reduce aircraft weight with only a small sacrifice in the reversed thrust. A good understanding of the pressure relief doors and techniques to improve the performance of such doors have been developed. Trade off studies between aerodynamics, manufacturing and assembly of engine nacelles have shown the potential for a significant reduction in life cycle cost.

This paper is concerned with the development of a failure initiation and progressive failure analysis (PFA) method for advanced composite structures. The present PFA model is capable of predicting interactive out-of-plane and in-plane failure modes observed in fiber reinforced composite laminates including interlaminar behavior and matrix microdamage at the mesoscale. A probability analysis tool is coupled with the PFA to account for uncertainty in modelling parameters caused by material variability and manufacturing inconsistencies. The progressive damage response of a laminated composite panel with an initial delamination is studied and used to demonstrate the PFA modelling framework that is presented here.

The development of the non-linear equations of motion for the hang glider from first principles is described, including the complex geometry of control by pilot ‘weight shift’. By making appropriate assumptions the linearised small perturbation equations are derived for the purposes of stability and control analysis. The mathematical development shows that control is effected not by pilot weight shift, but by centre of gravity shift and that lateral-directional control by this means is weak, and is accompanied by significant instantaneous adverse response.

The development of a comprehensive semi-empirical mathematical model of the flexible wing aerodynamics is described. In particular, the modelling attempts to quantify camber and twist dependencies. The performance of the model is shown to compare satisfactorily with measured hang glider wing data obtained in earlier full scale experiments. The mathematical aerodynamic model is then used to estimate the hang glider stability and control derivatives over the speed envelope for substitution into the linearised equations of motion.

Solution of the equations of motion is illustrated and the flight dynamics of the typical hang glider are described. In particular, the dynamic stability properties are very similar to those of a conventional aeroplane, but the predicted lateral directional stability margins are significantly larger. The depth of mathematical modelling employed enables the differences to be explained satisfactorily. The unique control properties of the hang glider are described in some detail. Pitch and roll control of the hang glider is an aerodynamic phenomenon and results from the pilot adjusting his position relative to the wing in order to generate out of trim aerodynamic control moments about the centre of gravity. Maximum control moments are limited by hang glider geometry which is dependent on the length of the pilot‘s arm. The pilot does not generate control moments directly by shifting his weight relative to the wing. The modelling thus described would seem to give a plausible description of the flight dynamics of the hang glider.

The analysis of the aerodynamic environment of the re-entry vehicle attaches great importance to the design of the novel drag reduction strategies, and the combinational spike and jet concept has shown promising application for the drag reduction in supersonic flows. In this paper, the drag force reduction mechanism induced by the combinational spike and lateral jet concept with the freestream Mach number being 5.9332 has been investigated numerically by means of the two-dimensional axisymmetric Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the shear stress transport (SST) k-ω turbulence model, and the effects of the lateral jet location and its number on the drag reduction of the blunt body have been evaluated. The obtained results show that the drag force of the blunt body can be reduced more profoundly when employing the dual lateral jets, and its maximum percentage is 38.81%, with the locations of the first and second lateral jets arranged suitably. The interaction between the leading shock wave and the first lateral jet has a great impact on the drag force reduction. The drag force reduction is more evident when the interaction is stronger. Due to the inclusion of the lateral jet, the pressure intensity at the reattachment point of the blunt body decreases sharply, as well as the temperature near the walls of the spike and the blunt body, and this implies that the multi-lateral jet is beneficial for the drag reduction.

In previous papers the basis of a matrix approach to the initial buckling or vibration of prismatic structures consisting of a series of thin flat rectangular plates rigidly connected together along their longitudinal edges has been developed. The present paper provides numerical results for the buckling, under uniform longitudinal compression, of a series of panels with unflanged or flanged integral stiffeners, or with Z-section stiffeners; the results are compared with those obtained by other methods and with published results, including an appropriate Royal Aeronautical Society Structures Data Sheet. It was found that considerable inaccuracies can arise from the usual methods of analysis and the authors believe that these justify the use of computer programmes, such as the ones used to obtain the results of this paper, at least at the final design stage.

The benefit to be obtained by using an interference fit between the pin and plate in a pin-jointed connection has already been established. An examination of the published results shows that some non-linearity occurs in the mechanism of load transference from the pin to the plate since, except at very high initial interference, doubling the load on the joint more than doubles the maximum shear stress in the plate. An examination of the stress-load relationship shows a distinct discontinuity, the load at which this discontinuity occurs being dependent upon both the initial interference and the coefficient of friction between the pin and the plate. It is shown that the results hitherto published correspond to a coefficient of friction between the pin and the plate of 0.3 and results for lower and higher coefficients are given.

In this paper the shock waves of a slender aircraft are considered at a great distance from the aircraft so that all the shocks have coalesced into either the bow or rear shocks, but not at such a great distance (asymptotic) that the two shocks are of equal strength. Lower bounds are determined for the pressure jump across the bow shock subject to various aircraft constraints, and the pressure jumps across both the bow and rear shocks are determined at off-design conditions. The work described is considered to be a preliminary investigation and the results are such that further work seems to be warranted.

Effects of vibrational excitation and dissociation of air on inviscid high speed flow past a circular cone, at zero incidence, with an attached shock wave, are studied on the assumption of thermal equilibrium. A numerical solution of the problem is outlined and an approximate analytic solution for the flow between the surface of the cone and the shock wave is developed. Two numerical examples are given as an illustration and compared with the corresponding solutions assuming constant air properties.

The work reported here was an experimental study of the combined influence of a sandpaper rough surface and a stream turbulence upon laminar and transitional boundary layers. Data correlations were obtained using the previously determined parameter of an equivalent Nikuradse size of roughness. These correlations are derived for the development of the laminar layer in thickness and profile shape factor, for the onset and the length of transition and for the distribution of intermittency through transition. Further fundamental differences in flow behaviour from those in a rough pipe have been found to add to those already reported.

The eddy dissipation model (EDM) is analysed with respect to the ability to address the turbulence–combustion interaction process inside hydrogen-fuelled scramjet engines designed to operate at high Mach numbers (≈7–12). The aim is to identify the most appropriate strategy for the use of the model and the calibration of the modelling constants for future design purposes. To this end, three hydrogen-fuelled experimental scramjet configurations with different fuel injection approaches are studied numerically. The first case consists of parallel fuel injection and it is shown that relying on estimates of ignition delay from a 1D kinetics program can greatly improve the effectiveness of the EDM. This was achieved through a proposed zonal approach. The second case considers fuel injection behind a strut. Here the EDM predicts two reacting layers along the domain which is in agreement with experimental temperature profiles close to the point of injection but not the case any more at the downstream end of the test section. The first two scramjet test cases demonstrated that the kinetic limit, which can be applied to the EDM, does not improve the predictions in comparison to experimental data. The last case considered a transverse injection of hydrogen and the EDM approach provided overall good agreement with experimental pressure traces except in the vicinity of the injection location. The EDM appears to be a suitable tool for scramjet combustor analysis incorporating different fuel injection mechanisms with hydrogen. More specifically, the considered test cases demonstrate that the model provides reasonable predictions of pressure, velocity, temperature and composition.

Even before 1939 the problems of high-speed flow were receiving a great deal of attention in the German aeronautical world. Their leading aerodynamicists, Prandtl, Busemann and Schlichting among others, had contributed largely to the theory of compressible fluid flow, and basic experimental research in the high-speed field had begun both at Aachen and at Göttingen. The activity in Germany in this particular field before the war was, in fact, much greater than in Britain, where Mr. Lock and his co-workers at the National Physical Laboratory carried practically the entire responsibility for such work.

The great increase in aircraft speeds during the war, and in particular the arrival of jet propulsion, completely changed our attitude to the subject in Britain. What had been an absorbing fundamental study became, quite suddenly, an important operational problem, looming large in every new fighter design.

A simplified analysis indicates that the increase in profile drag of an aerofoil due to an isolated roughness element is, in general, different from the drag of the element measured on a flat plate with the same free-stream velocity. This “magnification” effect is caused chiefly by the effect of the pressure gradients on the boundary layer downstream of the roughness element.

The degree of magnification is not closely approximated by the ratio of local to free-stream dynamic pressure and, in many typical cases, the contribution to the drag due to roughness elements may be seriously under-estimated in this way.

Measurements of the effect of the initial boundary-layer thickness on the subsequent development of a turbulent boundary-layer in an adverse pressure gradient support the theoretical conclusions.