Airfoil Design Optimization of Blended Wing Body for Various Aerodynamic and Stealth Stations

Zhang, Wei; Zhou, Lin; Zhao, Ke; Zhang, Ruibin; Gao, Zhenghong; Shu, Bowen

doi:10.3390/aerospace11070586

Open AccessArticle

Airfoil Design Optimization of Blended Wing Body for Various Aerodynamic and Stealth Stations

by

Wei Zhang

¹,

Lin Zhou

²,

Ke Zhao

^1,*,

Ruibin Zhang

¹,

Zhenghong Gao

¹ and

Bowen Shu

¹

School for Aeronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China

²

Aerospace Technology, Institute of China Aerodynamic Research and Development Center, Mianyang 621000, China

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Aerospace 2024, 11(7), 586; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace11070586

Submission received: 18 May 2024 / Revised: 2 July 2024 / Accepted: 4 July 2024 / Published: 17 July 2024

(This article belongs to the Section Aeronautics)

Download

Browse Figures

Versions Notes

Abstract

The airfoil is the foundation of an aircraft, and its characteristics have a significant impact on those of the aircraft. Conventional airfoil design mainly focuses on improving aerodynamic performance, while flying wing airfoil designs should also consider layout stability and stealth performance. The design requirements for an airfoil vary with its position on the flying wing layout aircraft based on corresponding spanwise flow field characteristics. By analyzing the spanwise flow characteristics of the flying wing, partition design models for flying wing airfoils were established in this study, and a series of flying wing airfoil designs that consider aerodynamics and aerodynamic/stealth were implemented. Then, the designed airfoils were configured on a three-dimensional X-47B layout for testing and verification. The results showed that the aerodynamic design and the aerodynamic/stealth design exhibited significant improvements in terms for aerodynamic and longitudinal trimming characteristics. However, the cruise drag performance of the aerodynamic/stealth design was slightly worse than that of the aerodynamic design, although the longitudinal moment trimming characteristics were basically the same. The stealth characteristics of the aerodynamic/stealth design had significant advantages, indicating that there were weak contradictions between the aerodynamic, stealth, and trimming requirements in the design of the flying wing.

Keywords: flying wing; airfoil; aerodynamic/stealth optimization; aerodynamic optimization

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Zhang, W.; Zhou, L.; Zhao, K.; Zhang, R.; Gao, Z.; Shu, B. Airfoil Design Optimization of Blended Wing Body for Various Aerodynamic and Stealth Stations. Aerospace 2024, 11, 586. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace11070586

AMA Style

Zhang W, Zhou L, Zhao K, Zhang R, Gao Z, Shu B. Airfoil Design Optimization of Blended Wing Body for Various Aerodynamic and Stealth Stations. Aerospace. 2024; 11(7):586. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace11070586

Chicago/Turabian Style

Zhang, Wei, Lin Zhou, Ke Zhao, Ruibin Zhang, Zhenghong Gao, and Bowen Shu. 2024. "Airfoil Design Optimization of Blended Wing Body for Various Aerodynamic and Stealth Stations" Aerospace 11, no. 7: 586. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace11070586

APA Style

Zhang, W., Zhou, L., Zhao, K., Zhang, R., Gao, Z., & Shu, B. (2024). Airfoil Design Optimization of Blended Wing Body for Various Aerodynamic and Stealth Stations. Aerospace, 11(7), 586. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace11070586

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Menu

Airfoil Design Optimization of Blended Wing Body for Various Aerodynamic and Stealth Stations

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI