Passive Control of the Flow Around the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy

Kurzfassung

The unsteady flowfield around the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, a reflecting telescope carried inside an open port of a Boeing 747SP, has been simulated by means of detached eddy simulations and unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations. Vortex generators have been placed upstream of the cavity to control the shear layer spanning the opening. The influence of baffles and displacement bodies placed inside the telescope port on the frequencies of acoustic resonant modes was investigated by acoustic simulations, based on the solution of the homogenous Helmholtz equation. The objective of this study is to improve the telescope’s performance by mitigating the amplitudes and changing the characteristic frequencies of the pressure fluctuations inside the cavity. The present simulations show that the investigated measures have a high potential to increase the telescope’s pointing stability.