Panel Method for Aero-Propulsive Design Space Exploration

Overview & Synopsis

The paper presents development of a low-order preliminary design tool based on panel methods, dedicated to analysis of the aero-propulsive design space for civil aviation applications. The development is building upon previous preliminary endeavours done by the same team, based on the idea of generalisation of an existing approach found in the literature. To enable full liberty to the designers, the tool is structured around a two-dimensional representation of an aero-propulsive assembly which consists of an integrated wing aerofoil, a nacelle aerofoil and a propulsor in-between the two. To enable the capability to the designers to investigate any aero-propulsive concept of interest by applying the panel method to the described setup, designers can independently modify any major geometric parameter of the assembly, along with the propulsive power input and the free stream flow characteristics. The additional integral part of this geometric setup consists of an artefact necessary to take along to enable panel method/irrotational modelling for a powered flow - a propulsive jet emanating from the propulsor. The presented developments of the tool concern the full geometrical parametrisation and improvement of the numerical scheme for more robust iteration of the propulsive jet shape. The tool is verified to be capable of operating across a very large design space and the method performs well for flows around clean geometries. Preliminary validation for the aero-propulsive case is not conclusive, and further work needs to be done to resolve uncertainties concerning the various aspects of the simplified propulsive jet model.