Drag Reduction by Laminar Flow Control

Nils Beck, Tim Landa, Arne Seitz, Loek Boermans, Yaolong Liu and Rolf Radespiel
Additional contact information
Nils Beck: Aeronautics Research Center Niedersachsen (NFL), TU Braunschweig, Hermann-Blenk-Straße 27, 38108 Braunschweig, Germany
Tim Landa: Institute of Fluid Mechanics (ISM), TU Braunschweig, Hermann-Blenk-Straße 37, 38108 Braunschweig, Germany
Arne Seitz: Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology (DLR-AS), German Aerospace Center, Lilienthalplatz 7, 38108 Braunschweig, Germany
Loek Boermans: Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS Delft, The Netherlands
Yaolong Liu: Aeronautics Research Center Niedersachsen (NFL), TU Braunschweig, Hermann-Blenk-Straße 27, 38108 Braunschweig, Germany
Rolf Radespiel: Institute of Fluid Mechanics (ISM), TU Braunschweig, Hermann-Blenk-Straße 37, 38108 Braunschweig, Germany

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-28

Abstract: The Energy System Transition in Aviation research project of the Aeronautics Research Center Niedersachsen (NFL) searches for potentially game-changing technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of aviation by promoting and enabling new propulsion and drag reduction technologies. The greatest potential for aerodynamic drag reduction is seen in laminar flow control by boundary layer suction. While most of the research so far has been on partial laminarization by application of Natural Laminar Flow (NLF) and Hybrid Laminar Flow Control (HLFC) to wings, complete laminarization of wings, tails and fuselages promises much higher gains. The potential drag reduction and suction requirements, including the necessary compressor power, are calculated on component level using a flow solver with viscid/inviscid coupling and a 3D Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solver. The effect on total aircraft drag is estimated for a state-of-the-art mid-range aircraft configuration using preliminary aircraft design methods, showing that total cruise drag can be halved compared to today’s turbulent aircraft.

Keywords: drag reduction; laminar flow control; boundary layer suction; transition; aircraft design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/1/252/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/1/252/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:1:p:252-:d:127953

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().