Academics Research Our Dept Resources Academics Undergraduate Programs Graduate Programs Course Descriptions Mission and Objectives Research Department Faculty & Staff Graduate Students Open Faculty Positions News & Announcements Events Resources Webmail Career Services Engineering Student Services Intranet Home > Our Department > All Events > An Integrated CFD Process for Aero-optics Analysis    An Integrated CFD Process for Aero-optics Analysis   By Dr. Mori Mani Senior Technical Fellow The Boeing Company   Thu, Oct 30, 2008 2:30 PM   Location: Lopata Hall Room 101   Abstract The Boeing Company has developed a technology that enables validated predictions of optical performance for arbitrary configurations using advanced CFD methods.  The Boeing Enterprise Aero-optic Modeling (BEAM) project was formed to estimate the performance of existing or conceptual optical devices immersed in compressible flow fields.  Imbedding the aero-optic calculation within Boeing common CFD toolset allows efficient, rapid analyses and detailed insight into the origins of aero-optic disturbances.  Corrective enhancements can then be directly estimated and confirmed. Optical devices aboard aircraft that are exposed to high subsonic Mach numbers introduce aero-optic distortion from separated boundary layers, free shear layers, and large vortices.  These types of secondary flows add to the complex density fluctuations around the device which cause rapid changes to the index of refraction and make corrective compensation difficult.  The current approach combines state-of-the-art time-dependant Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and a program that computes the optical path integrations and the associated Optical Path Distortions (OPD) which characterize the magnitude of the wave front deviation due to the aerodynamic disturbances over the device.    The BEAM aero-optic method has been validated on a one-to-one wind tunnel scale using a twelve inch diameter hemispherical turret.  Both aerodynamic data as well as 2-D wave front data were measured in this wind tunnel test.  A comparison of predicted pressures and wake velocity profiles for this configuration is presented.  The measured root-mean-square of OPD is also compared to the computations to demonstrate the accuracy of the current capability.     Mechanical, Aerospace & Structural Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis One Brookings Drive, Box 1185, St. Louis, Missouri 63130 Office Location: 305 Jolley Hall, Phone: (314) 935-6047, Fax: (314) 935-4014   Home |  Academics | Research | Department | Resources © 2009 | Did you find it?