Award Date

5-1-2012

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering (MSE)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Committee Member

Darrell Pepper

Second Committee Member

Hui Zhao

Third Committee Member

William Culbreth

Fourth Committee Member

Evagelos Yfantis

Fifth Committee Member

Ronald Smith

Number of Pages

166

Abstract

There is no cost effective way to deliver a payload to space and, with rising fuel prices, currently the price to travel commercially is also becoming more prohibitive to the public. During supersonic flight, compressive shock waves form around the craft which could be harnessed to deliver an additional lift on the craft. Using a series of hanging plates below a lifting wing design, the total lift generated can be increased above conventional values, while still maintaining a similar lift-to-drag ratio. Here, we study some of the flows involved in supersonic shockwave interaction. This analysis uses ANSYS Fluent Computational Fluid Dynamics package as the modeler. Our findings conclude an increase of up to 30% lift on the modeled craft while maintaining the lift-to-drag profile of the unmodified lifting wing. The increase in lift when utilizing the shockwave interaction could increase transport weight and reduce fuel cost for space and commercial flight, as well as mitigating negative effects associated with supersonic travel.

Keywords

Aerodynamics; Supersonic; Aeronautics; Aerospace; Energy consumption; Interaction; Lift (Aerodynamics); Reflection; Shock; Shock waves; Shockwave; Supersonic; Supersonic transport planes; Ultrasonic waves

Disciplines

Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics | Aerospace Engineering

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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