Numerical and experimental flow studies of idealized aircraft cabins

Kurzfassung

For two different types of cabins of modern mega liners, passenger cabins and sleeping bunks, generic configurations have been investigated numerically by means of Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) computations and experimentally by particle image velocimetry (PIV) as well as thermography. In order to study the flow of fresh air along the luggage compartment, the real aircraft cabin has been reduced to the wider region around this compartment. From the crew rest compartments one single person sleeping bunk was considered. Comparisons between computations and measurements indicates that higher value low Reynolds number turbulence models are suited best to predict the complex 3D flow with separation.