Verification of a chamberless HLFC design with an outer skin of variable porosity

Abstract

A chamberless HLFC leading edge segment featuring an outer skin with variable porosity has been designed, manufactured and wind-tunnel tested under flight Reynolds-number conditions. The aerodynamic design involved the extention of current HLFC design routines to variable pressure loss characteristics of the outer skin. Advanced options for structural design and manufacturing solutions with focus on industrialization, arising from the avoidance of aerodynamically driven chambering, are explored. The leading edge segment has been installed on an existing vertical tail plane model and tested at the large low-speed wind-tunnel facility DNW-LLF. The design process and some results of the successful verification of the chamberless design are presented herein.