ECCOMAS 2024

Investigating Truss-Braced Wing Configuration through CFD Based Analysis

  • Hothazie, Mihai (National Institute for Aerospace Research "El)
  • Crunteanu, Daniel (University Politehnica of Bucharest: Faculty)
  • Bunescu, Ionut (National Institute for Aerospace Research "El)
  • Pricop, Mihai (National Institute for Aerospace Research "El)

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Meeting the demand for high-performance, aerodynamically efficient aircraft requires not only optimizing existing designs but also exploring novel configurations. Among these, the strut-braced wing configuration shows promise due to its potential for superior aerodynamic performance driven by an increased aspect ratio wing coupled with structural efficiency. However, designing and optimizing such a configuration require the use of high-fidelity solvers, especially in regions where shock-wave interactions within the transonic regime occur. The computational demands, including time and power requirements, pose challenges in optimizing strut-braced wing configurations, necessitating the development of an efficient framework for aerodynamic performance evaluation. This paper aims to overcome these challenges by developing a framework based on high-fidelity open-source codes such as ADflow and pyHyp. Key to this framework is the integration of an effective hyperbolic meshing technique with the overset method to significantly reduce computational requirements and enable in-depth parametric studies and optimization processes tailored to the geometric characteristics of wing and strut shape and positioning. Hence, these analyses hold the potential to contribute with new aerodynamic insights beneficial for designing and optimizing the strut-braced wing configuration.