Aerodynamic contrails form when air flows across the wings of subsonic aircraft in cruise. During a short adiabatic expansion phase, high supersaturations trigger burst-like homogeneous ice formation on ambient liquid aerosol particles within a wing depth. Small particles freeze first, because they equilibrate most rapidly. Ambient temperature is the key determinant of nascent aerodynamic contr...

L OW-REYNOLDS-NUMBER airfoil aerodynamics is important for bothmilitary and civilian applications. The applications include propellers, sailplanes, ultralight man-carrying/man-powered aircraft, high-altitude vehicles, wind turbines, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and micro air vehicles (MAVs). For the applications just listed, the combination of small length scale and low flight velocities re...

this paper presented methods to determine the aerodynamic forces that acton an aircraft wing during flight. these methods are initially proposed for asimplified two degree-of-freedoms airfoil model and then are extensivelyapplied for a multi-degree-of-freedom airfoil system. different airspeedconditions are considered in establishing such methods. the accuracy of thepresented methods is verifie...

Aerodynamic design algorithms require an optimization strategy to search for the best design. The object of this paper is to compare the performance of some different strategies when used by an aerodynamic shape optimization routine which designs fan blade shapes. A recently developed genetic algorithm, Differential Evolution [1,2], outperforms more traditional techniques.

Recent work on a novel approach to the control of the aerodynamic performance of lifting surfaces by fluidic modification of their apparent aerodynamic shape, or virtual aerosurface shaping is reviewed. This flow control approach emphasizes fluidic modification of the “apparent” aerodynamic shape of the surface with the objective of altering or prescribing the streamwise pressure gradient. Cont...

Reynolds number and thus body size may potentially limit aerodynamic force production in flying insects due to relative changes of viscous forces on the beating wings. By comparing four different species of fruit flies similar in shape but with different body mass, we have investigated how small insects cope with changes in fluid mechanical constraints on power requirements for flight and the e...

The present paper deals with the preliminary design of a general aviation Commuter 11 seat aircraft. The Commuter aircraft market is today characterized by very few new models and the majority of aircraft in operation belonging to this category are older than 35 years. Tecnam Aircraft Industries and the Department of Aerospace Engineering (DIAS) of the University of Naples "Federico II" are dee...

2. Aerodynamic Simulation This paper reviews some of the progress in computational aerodynamics over the last decade and describes what remains to be done in the years ahead. The discussion includes a description of the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Program objectives, computational goals, and implementation plans.

The scientific objective of the Mars Surveyor Program 2005 mission is to return Mars rock, soil, and atmospheric samples to Earth for detailed analysis. The present investigation focuses on design of Mars Ascent Vehicle for this mission. Aerodynamic, aerothermodynamic, and trajectory design considerations are addressed to assess the ascent configuration, determine aerodynamic stability, charact...