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Full Length Article | Open Access

Wind tunnel investigation of different engine layouts of a blended-wing-body transport

Zheng CUIa,b, Guojun LAIb, Qifeng WANGb, Yu LIANGa( ), Yihua CAOa
School of Aeronautic Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100083, China
COMAC Beijing Aircraft Technology Research Institute, Beijing 102211, China
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Abstract

A 2% scale, cruising version of a 450-seat class Blended-Wing-Body (BWB) transport was tested in the China Aerodynamic Research and Development Center’s FL-26 2.4-by-2.4-meter subsonic wind tunnel. The focus of the wind tunnel test was to investigate the aerodynamic performance of the latest BWB transport design, which would also aid in choosing a final engine arrangement in the three most potential engine integration layouts. The wind tunnel model can be tested with and without the nacelle and has three sets of different nacelle/tail integration positions. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed in engine-aircraft integration design to find appropriate nacelle installing parameters of each layout. The comparison of CFD with experimental results shows good agreement. Wind tunnel measurements indicate that the tail-mounted engine layout produces the minimum drag penalty, while the fuselage-mounted engine layout increases drag the most. Experimental pressure measurement illustrates the effect of nacelle integration on the wing-body surface pressure distribution. This experimental and numerical research provides a reference for future BWB Propulsion-Airframe Integration (PAI) design.

Keywords

CFDAerodynamicsWind tunnelsPAIBWBCivil aviationEngine layoutTransport aircraft

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Chinese Journal of Aeronautics
Volume 36 Issue 9,
September 2023
Pages 123-132
DOI: 10.1016/j.cja.2023.04.027
Cite this article:
CUI Z, LAI G, WANG Q, et al. Wind tunnel investigation of different engine layouts of a blended-wing-body transport. Chinese Journal of Aeronautics, 2023, 36(9): 123-132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cja.2023.04.027

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Received: 21 August 2022
Revised: 13 September 2022
Accepted: 01 February 2023
Published: 03 May 2023
© 2023 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
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