An Investigation of the Dynamic Effects of Flap Deflection on the Aerodynamic Characteristics of an Airplane Wing Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

<p>Flaps are used to increase an airplane's lift and to adjust its stability and maneuverability. This study shows an application of STAR-CD, a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, to an investigation of the dynamic effects of flap deflection on the lift, drag and moment coefficients, as well as on the location of the center of pressure. For this study, a plain flap was modeled with a moving mesh and was attached to a NACA 0012 airfoil and a wing of a general aviation aircraft for a 2D and 3D investigation, respectively. In addition, the flap deflection rates were varied to investigate their effect on the flow field and the airfoil's stability characteristics. The results from the analyses were ultimately used to prove that commercial CFD software is a viable option to investigate the stability and control characteristics of an aircraft.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - Open Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Aerospace Engineering

Year

2006

Author dc:creator

• Moerchel, Alexander

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hany Nakhla
• Eric Perrell
• Axel Rohde

• dynamics
• flap deflection
• aerodynamics
• airplane wing
• computational fluid dynamics
• Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics
• Aerospace Engineering

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.erau.edu/db-theses/148

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.erau.edu:db-theses-1205