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Impact
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Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe (ACARE) published some years ago the document “European Aeronautics: A vision for 2020”. The so called “Vision 2020” defines the objectives for the European aeronautical industry in order to reduce the environmental impact due to air transport. The most important issues define a reduction of 80% on the NOx emissions, a reduction of 50% on the CO2 emissions, and a reduction of the perceived noise of 10dB.
These ambitious aims have been integrated on several EC Calls for Proposals, one of them; the actual FP7 Call mentions these aims as particular aims of several topics. Area 7.1.4.2; Aircraft Operational Cost, and its topic AAT.2010.4.2-7; Enhancing strategic international co-operation with China in the field of flow control for drag reduction and wing aeroelastic optimization, are clear examples of this fact.
Flow control is a branch of Flight Physics that is key to efficient future air transport. Flow control devices can potentially produce great benefits regarding drag reduction and flow separation control, two of the main sources of fuel consumption during flight.
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| 1.1. Expected impacts listed in the work programme |
Area 7.1.4.2 Aircraft operational cost is mainly intended to ensure cost efficiency, focussing on the reduction of aircraft direct operating cost. It is well-known that one of the most important operating costs is fuel consumption, which is directly related to flight performance of the aircraft. Reducing drag and delaying flow separation are efficient ways to reduce fuel consumption. In addition, there are also environmental benefits with accompanied reduction of emissions, and reduction of external noise coming from the engine.
Within this Area, this project is focussed on international cooperation with China; topic AAT.2010.4.2-7. The aim is to promote an effective cooperation in an important field supporting aircraft design, i.e. computational simulation and flow control experiments to discover effective means of flow separation control and relevant aircraft drag reduction, through an improved understanding of the effect of Reynolds stress.
To summarise from the work programme, the potential impacts are:
- Basic understanding of the effects of various flow control devices on Reynolds stress
- Ways of manipulating the turbulence Reynolds stress for effective flow control
- Identification of practical issues in aeronautical application
- Experimental and simulation flow control data for future validation
- Enhancement of EU-China scientific collaboration in a key technological area
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