Aerodynamically

Balanced Control
Surfaces

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 Aerodynamically Balanced Control
Surfaces
Erkki Soinne
Saab AB
Arthur Rizzi
Department of Aeronautics, Royal Institute of Technology
Tommy Nygren
Saab AB
Background

In the field of aerodynamics co-operation has been undertaken between Saab

Aerospace and the Department of Aeronautics at the Royal Institute of Technology.
In this research project the ailerons of a Saab 2000 airplane have been chosen as a
practical application.

A pilot steers an airplane by moving the control surfaces on the wings through a
mechanical or hydraulically operated control system. A mechanical system prov- This project aims at reducing
ides a large potential for cost reduction but at present also a higher program risk the risk in designing a
due to uncertainties in the design process. This project aims at reducing the risk in mechanical control system by
designing a mechanical control system by increasing the know-how in using CFD increasing the know-how in
(Computational Fluid Dynamics) and flight mechanical simulations for this type of using CFD (Computational
research.
Fluid Dynamics) and flight
On aircraft with mechanical control systems there is usually a slot between the
mechanical simulations for
control surface and the fixed part of the airfoil (see Figure 4.5 on page 21 in the this type of research.
color section). The flow conditions in the slot are dependent on the slot geometry,
flow velocity, and airfoil angle of attack. The task is to find for the control surface
and hinge location a geometry, that gives loads not exceeding the airplane pilot
capacity throughout the entire speed regime. On the other hand the loads shall be
high enough so that the steering is not too sensitive for the pilot.

A literature review on aileron design was made within the the project and an inter-
pretation of airworthiness authorities’ requirements on aileron design is found in
[Soinne, 1997].

5.1 Computations

CFD is a new alternative for determining the aerodynamic properties of an airfoil

with a control surface. The emergence of powerful computers has made it possible
to solve numerically the Navier-Stokes equations. In practical cases it is still
impossible to direct numerically solve all turbulent length scales due to excessive
computation time. Instead the equations are Reynolds averaged and a turbulence

33

The objective was to
investigate the achievable
accuracy and the limits of the
codes.
The computations with NSMB
were mainly run on Cray T3E
parallel computer using 16
processors with run times to
convergence varying from 16
to 32 hours. Alltogether over
10000 hours of CPU time was
used.
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model, based on experiments, is introduced. The problem is then transformed into
solving the averaged mean flow equations and the transport equations of the
turbulence model in question. The equations are usually dicretized in space using a
finite volume approximation. The mean flow equations are integrated in time to
obtain a stationary solution. The solutions on airfoils are sensitive to the trailing
edge conditions.
Computations have been made with two Navier-Stokes codes, ns2d and NSMB.
ns2d is a Saab in-house code solving the two-dimensional equations in a structured
multi-block domain. NSMB is a three-dimensional multi-block code developed by
two universities, EPFL in Switzerland and KTH in Sweden, a research institute
CERFACS in France and two aircraft industries, Aerospatiale Avions in France
and Saab Aerospace in Sweden.
At this stage of the project the objective is to validate the codes for computation of
flows around control surfaces by comparing the results with selected wind tunnel
test cases. Two test cases were chosen, one representative for low speed flight and
another one for high speed flight. Some examples of the more important low speed
case are shown here. Figure 1 depicts the turbulent kinetic energy around the MS(1)-
0313 airfoil. The computed results confirm that transition from laminar to turbu-
lent flow has taken place in the vicinity of the airfoil nose as specified. Transition
was set at 5% chord on the airfoil upper surface and at 10% chord on the lower
surface.
The objective was to investigate the achievable accuracy and the limits of the codes.
In the low speed case the computed aerodynamic coefficients matched the
test values fairly well with differences increasing with higher lift coefficients. The
reason for this was traced to the turbulence models which had difficulties in
predicting flow separation. Figure 4.6 on page 21 in the color section shows the
computed streamlines around the MS(1)-0313 airfoil. A separation bubble is shown
on the upper surface at the trailing edge whereas intuitively a complete flow sepa-
ration or at least a wake behind the trailing edge would be expected.
The effects of the computational grid were also studied by locally refining the
mesh at the trailing edge, varying the size of the first cell closest to the airfoil
surface and varying the size of the grid. Grid convergence was also investigated by
creating a very fine grid by dividing every cell in the two directions. The
computations showed that grid variation had only small effects on the results. The
results are summarized in the licentiate thesis [Soinne, 1999] and the associated
reference reports.
The computations with ns2d were run on Cray C90 vector computer with a typical
run time of 20 to 40 hours to convergence. The computations with NSMB were
mainly run on Cray T3E parallel computer using 16 processors with run times to
convergence varying from 16 to 32 hours. Alltogether over 10000 hours of CPU
time were used.
5.2 Conclusions

As a new method to determine the aerodynamic properties of airplane control

surfaces CFD has been employed. Test cases with comparison to wind tunnel
measurements have established the achievable accuracy.

The use of super computers was essential for this investigation. With state of the art The use of super computers
work stations the computations would have taken more than five years and could was essential for this
never have been done. An example of this is the grid gonvergence run with investigation. With state of the
the very fine grid. Only by manually splitting the grid the required memory size art work stations the
could be kept below the 100000 KW limit of Cray C90. In spite of making the computations would have
sequential runs during the summer without a vacation it took 6 weeks to obtain
taken more than five years and
convergence.
could never have been done
Reaching the correct Mach and Reynolds numbers is not easy in wind tunnel
experiments and requires a pressurized tunnel which is especially expensive. Flight
tests provide the correct flow conditions but are possible first at a late stage of an
aircraft project. Often the accuracy in flight tests is less than desired and the cost
prohibitive. Compared with testing it is much easier to vary the design geometry in
CFD computations. Consequently CFD provides potential for improvements in
accuracy, cost and time.

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