The Surface Operations Simulator and Scheduler (SOSS) is a fast-time simulation of the airport surface used to rapidly develop and test new surface scheduling concepts. Gate conflicts present a challenge for surface scheduling. A late departure pushback or early arrival sharing the same gate can cause a gate conflict, which if left unmanaged, can lead to surface gridlock. Surface scheduling concepts that meter departures at their gates can increase the likelihood of gate conflicts. In real operations, hardstand areas are used to temporality park aircraft out of the way to avoid gate conflicts. New SOSS models and functionality for hardstand operations were developed to simulate gate conflict management approaches using hardstands to temporarily park either the arrival or departure out of the way of the other. Four gate conflict management approaches were simulated with surface scheduling and their effects on surface operations were compared. The four gate conflict management approaches each allowed a unique subset of resolution actions including early departure pushback, sending the departure to the hardstand, and sending the arrival to the hardstand. The gate conflict management approaches allowing arrivals to be sent to the hardstand were found to be most successful in resolving the gate conflicts and maintaining scheduler performance measured by takeoff time predictability.

Low Reynolds number blade profiles of ReC=105–2×105 as based on the chord length and used for small unnamed air vehicles, and near space applications are investigated for single and counter-rotating (co-axial) proprotors, i.e. acting as rotors or propellers. Such profiles are prone for early stall, significantly reducing their maximum lift to drag ratio. Two profiles previously designed by our continuous surface curvature design approach named as CIRCLE are investigated in order to improve the performance of the proprotors. The profiles are redesigns of the common symmetric NACA0012 and asymmetric E387 profiles. Using general arguments based on composite efficiency and rotor’s lift to drag ratio, the performance envelope is noticeably increased when using the redesigned profiles for high angles of attack due to stall delay.

A new approach is derived to account for the distance between the rotors of a co-axial proprotor. It is coupled with a blade element method and is verified against experimental results. Single and co-axial CIRCLE-based proprotors are investigated against the corresponding non-CIRCLE-based proprotors at hover and axial translation. Noticeable improvements are observed in thrust increase and power reduction at high angles of attack of the blade’s profiles, particularly for the co-axial configuration. Plots of thrust, torque, power, composite efficiency and aerodynamic efficiency distributions are given and analysed.

Flow over a moderately swept wing is characterised by complex localised flow vortex topologies such as ‘closed’ separation bubbles or ‘open’ separation structures. A model of a complex cambered, twisted, tapered wing with 40° leading edge sweep, representative of those designed for manoeuvre at high subsonic Mach numbers, was investigated using the oil-film visualisation, stereo particle image velocimetry and force moment measurements. Wind-tunnel tests were conducted at a range of Reynolds number from 2.1×105 to 8.4×105 and at angles of incidence from −1° to 22°. Still images combined with video clips enable flow patterns over the wing model to be interpreted more clearly and accurately. Using successive images extracted from the video of flow visualisation, the movement of the oil pigment has been estimated. The influence of the Reynolds number and incidence angle was discussed through analysing the flow pattern over the wing surface. Additionally, the link between the flow structures present and the wing aerodynamic performance was studied.

A flow corridor is a new class of trajectory-based airspace that encloses groups of flights which fly along the same path in one direction and accept responsibility for separation from each other. A well-designed corridor could reduce the airspace complexity, decrease the workload of air traffic controllers and increase the airspace capacity. This paper analyses the impact of different self-separation parameters on capacity and conflicts of the flow corridor. Both the quantitative impact and interaction effects of pairs of parameters are evaluated using the combined discrete-continuous model and Monte Carlo simulation method. The simulation results show that although the initial separation is the dominating factor, the interactions between initial separation and separation buffer, minimum separation, extra switch buffer, extra threshold buffer and velocity difference threshold also have some significant impacts on the capacity and conflicts for the flow corridor.

In this paper, a Gaussian process regression (GPR)-based novel method is proposed for non-linear aerodynamic modelling of the aircraft using flight data. This data-driven regression approach uses the kernel-based probabilistic model to predict the non-linearity. The efficacy of this method is examined and validated by estimating force and moment coefficients using research aircraft flight data. Estimated coefficients of aerodynamic force and moment using GPR method are compared with the estimated coefficients using maximum-likelihood estimation (MLE) method. Estimated coefficients from the GPR method are statistically analysed and found to be at par with estimated coefficients from MLE, which is popularly used as a conventional method. GPR approach does not require to solve the complex equations of motion. GPR further can be directed for the generalised applications in the area of aeroelasticity, load estimation, and optimisation.

The drive for increasing flight efficiency is resulting in wing designs that are of higher aspect ratios, lower in weight, increased wingspans and, consequently, require greater attention in the disciplines of aeroelastics and loads. This trend in aircraft design, along with past research experience with flexible aircraft, motivate a review of assumptions in gust models; especially, that of the gust maintaining a uniform spanwise profile. In this paper, the authors investigate the use of spanwise varying 1−cos gust models for loads prediction using a non-linear aeroelastic model of a conventional large transport aircraft. The comparison between a test case using conventional uni-dimensional approach and another, using multidimensional gusts, illustrates the impact of stepping away from traditional discrete tuned gust processes and adding a spanwise varying gust component. A methodology for processing and analysing the loads data arising due to the added dimension is also developed and both envelope and correlated loads are considered. Gust characteristics and resulting load factor are, respectively, considered for comparison between the two models, as both metrics define realistic gust encounters. In this case, it has been shown that spanwise variation of gust profiles leads to lower envelope loads if viewed in terms of conventional gust gradients. However, higher envelope loads are found if the maximum load factors are matched.

Airframe–propulsion integration concepts that use boundary-layer ingestion (BLI) have the potential to reduce aircraft fuel burn. One concept that has been recently explored is NASA’s STARC-ABL aircraft configuration, which offers the potential for fuel burn reduction by using a turboelectric propulsion system with an aft-mounted electrically driven BLI propulsor. So far, attempts to quantify this potential fuel burn reduction have not considered the full coupling between the aerodynamic and propulsive performance. To address the need for a more careful quantification of the aeropropulsive benefit of the STARC-ABL concept, we run a series of design optimisations based on a fully coupled aeropropulsive model. A 1D thermodynamic cycle analysis is coupled to a Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulation to model the aft propulsor at a cruise condition and the effects variation in propulsor design on overall performance. A series of design optimisation studies are performed to minimise the required cruise power, assuming different relative sizes of the BLI propulsor. The design variables consist of the fan pressure ratio, static pressure at the fan face, and 311 variables that control the shape of both the nacelle and the fuselage. The power required by the BLI propulsor is compared with a podded configuration. The results show that the BLI configuration offers 6–9% reduction in required power at cruise, depending on assumptions made about the efficiency of power transmission system between the under-wing engines and the aft propulsor. Additionally, the results indicate that the power transmission efficiency directly affects the relative size of the under-wing engines and the aft propulsor. This design optimisation, based on computational fluid dynamics, is shown to be essential to evaluate current BLI concepts and provides a powerful tool for the design of future concepts.

In this study, the combustion instability and emission characteristics of flames of different H2/CH4 compositions were investigated in a partially premixed model gas turbine combustor. A mode shift in the frequency of instability occurred under varying experimental conditions from the first to the seventh mode of longitudinal frequency in the combustor, and a parametric study was conducted to determine the reasons for this shift by using the length of the combustor, a factor that determines the mode frequency of longitudinal instability, as the main parameter. Furthermore, heat load and fuel composition (H2 ratio) were considered as parameters to compare the phenomenon under different conditions. The GRI-3.0 CANTERA code, OH chemiluminescence and the Abel inversion process were applied to analyse the frequency mode shift. NOx emissions, which occurred through the thermal NOx mechanism, increased with increasing heat load and H2 ratio. The instability frequency shifted from the first to the seventh mode as the H2 ratio increased in the H2/CH4 mixture. However, 100% H2 as fuel did not cause combustion instability because it has a higher burning velocity and extinction stretch rate than CH4. Furthermore, the laminar flame speed influenced the frequency mode shift. These phenomena were confirmed by the flame shapes. The Abel inversion process was applied to obtain the cross section of the flames from averaged OH chemiluminescence images. Stable and unstable flames were identified from the radial profile of OH concentration. The combustor length was found to not influence frequency mode shift, whereas the H2 ratio significantly influenced it as well as the flame shape. The results of this experimental study can help in the reliable operation of gas turbine systems in SNG plants.