ANALYSIS OF THE TRANSONIC FLOW AROUND A GENERIC UCAV CONFIGURATION

Abstract

The present investigations have been carried out for the international SACCON military UCAV configuration, which has been repeatedly analyzed in terms of the aerodynamic behavior in the subsonic and transonic speed range. Experimental as well as numerical investigations have been carried out to understand the flow behavior mainly in the subsonic regime. Most of these investigations were part of the NATO/RTO AVT-161 Task Group and the DLR project UCAV-2010. Up to now the existing studies related to the SACCON configuration were based on wind tunnel models, and the corresponding CFD solutions have been performed for the wind tunnel Reynolds numbers. A CFD study of the full-scale configuration with corresponding flight conditions in the transonic regime has not yet been undertaken. Regarding real missions, in the present study different flight conditions have been chosen. Subsequently an overview is given on the flow phenomena, which develop at transonic speed around the UCAV configuration at high angles of attack and for a full-scale Reynolds number. Extensive numerical simulations were performed to deliver an insight into the flow physics and the aerodynamic behavior.