MECH 3640

Aerodynamics

Lecture 1: 6 Sep 2023

Diamond DA20 Instructor: Prof Larry Li 1
 Arctic
Ocean

Atlantic
Ocean

Oman
Atlantic
Ocean
Indian Ocean

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 Oman

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 A380-800: MTOW = 575,000 kg

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 Bombardier Challenger 604: MTOW = 21,863 kg

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 Wake turbulence

Wake
vortices
1) CL604 at 34,000 ft
passes A380 flying
1000 ft above

2) CL604 becomes caught

3) CL604 pilots regain in the A380’s wake and is
control and land their violently rolled and spun
L1 damaged aircraft 6
 CL604: Flight data during loss of altitude

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 CL604: Flight data during loss of altitude + recovery

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 The aftermath

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 Recycling

L1 https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2017-12-21/challenger-604-a380-turbulence-incident-sold-parts 10
http://avherald.com
/h?article=4a5e80f3
&opt=0

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 Today’s agenda: Housekeeping
• Subject + objectives
What is aerodynamics? Why should you study it? What tools will you need?

• Logistics + format
How will you learn? How will you be assessed? What will be expected of you?

• Course topics
What will you learn? By the end of this course, what will you be able to do?

• A brief history of flight

From Chinese kites to the Boeing 787 to the…

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 Objectives

High Level: To gain a basic understanding of the

physical principles and complex flow
phenomena that govern the motion of
flight vehicles in aerospace engineering,
from subsonic to supersonic speeds.

Low Level: To be able to calculate the lift and drag

of a wing in simplified situations, and to
appreciate other physical effects that
arise in practice.
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 What is aerodynamics?
• Study of the loads exerted by fluid flowing around solid objects
• A branch of the science of fluid mechanics (or fluid dynamics)

Solid
Classical Continuum mechanics
mechanics mechanics Fluid
Mechanics Aerodynamics
Quantum mechanics
mechanics

• Subject to the fundamental laws of physics (e.g. 𝐹Ԧ = 𝑚𝑎)

Ԧ
• Important to couple with propulsion (MECH 3660), aircraft
structures (3650), and aircraft performance and stability (3670)
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 Why study aerodynamics?
• Anything can fly – if you put a big enough rocket under it!

• However, that is usually the most expensive, inefficient and

dangerous solution!
• Problems still exist in control, stability, efficiency (fuel $) and
other areas that can only be solved with good aerodynamics
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Why study aerodynamics?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sog-25d1nWM
https://www.aerosociety.com/news/air-ambulance-of-the-future
 Why study aerodynamics?

Lamma
Winds

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 Why study aerodynamics?

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 Three take-offs for the price of one

L1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kle80KB_s3I 21
http://avherald.co
m/h?article=49d1
59fc&opt=0

https://www.youtu
be.com/watch?v=T
Ejbg_2yuFI&t=3s

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 Concorde at Kai-Tak Airport

L1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s7Q-Z2PGQw 23
 Logistics + Format
Please see the course syllabus

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 Your TAs

Hiromi Kimishima Leonard Zhai Jungjin Park

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

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 Project: Wind tunnel testing + Numerical simulations

https://aaf.ust.hk
/fac/4/

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Courtesy of Jungjin Park
Project: Wind tunnel testing + Numerical simulations

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Aerodynamics and Acoustics Facility: Large Wind Tunnel

Lab tour in October

https://aaf.ust.hk

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 Education philosophy + Tools
• Emphasis on fundamental understanding, not just on
memorizing formulae and facts
• Focus on why and how, not just on what
• Emphasis on curiosity and perseverance

• Mathematics required for this course

• Linear algebra
• Vector calculus
• Multivariate calculus
(because most flows
are at least 2D)
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 Overview of course topics
For an airplane to fly, it must produce a lift force to overcome its weight.
We would like to know how lift is produced and how some normalized
measure of lift (i.e. the lift coefficient) depends on the flow conditions
(e.g. incompressible vs compressible), the airfoil/wing geometry (e.g.
cambered vs symmetric) and its orientation relative to the oncoming
flow (i.e. the angle of attack or AOA for short).

Lift

Thrust Drag

Weight
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 Overview of course topics (cont.)
Conceptually, we can write 𝐶𝐿 = 𝑓(𝛼, 𝑅𝑒, 𝑀, … ) where 𝐶𝐿 is the lift
coefficient, 𝛼 is the angle of attack (AOA), 𝑅𝑒 is the Reynolds number
(representing inertial and viscous effects) and 𝑀 is the Mach number
(representing compressibility effects).

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 Overview of course topics (cont.)
If 𝑅𝑒 is sufficiently high, the flow is turbulent
and has disorderly fluctuations across a wide
range of spatiotemporal scales: Lecture 12

If 𝑀~0.3 or higher, the flow is compressible

(i.e. its density varies) and phenomena
such as shock waves and expansion fans
become important: Lecture 13 onwards

From thermodynamics, we know that a large

temperature rise can occur if a high-speed
flow is brought to a stop. We will see later
that this can have profound implications
for the design of transonic and supersonic
wings: Lecture 15 onwards
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 Course topics
Please see the course syllabus
Honda Jet: 680 km/h F-35A: Mach 1.6+

Cessna 172: 225 km/h Airbus A350: Mach 0.85 NASA X-43: Mach 9.6

Incompressible Compressible

Subsonic Transonic Supersonic Hypersonic

𝑀=0 0.3 0.8 1 1.2 5
L1 → L12 L13 → L20
 Key learning outcomes
• Explain how airplanes can fly.

• Apply the basic tools of inviscid incompressible aerodynamic

analysis to estimate lift for an airfoil.

• Explain and quantify the effects of viscosity on airfoil

performance.

• Explain the physical differences between infinite span (2D) and

finite span (3D) wing performance.

• Understand the basics of full-airplane aerodynamics.

• Account for the effects of compressibility in aerodynamics.

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 A brief history of flight

The aircraft is a very recent invention

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 A brief history of flight
1000BC Chinese kites carry men to scout troops
… Lots of people die crashing badly designed gliders
1804 Sir George Cayley (England) builds & flies the first successful model glider
1868 Matthew Boulton (England) patents the first ailerons
1884 Horatio Phillips (England) designs a wing with a curved airfoil
1896 Samuel Langley (US) flies a steam-powered model aircraft up to 1.2 km
1903 Langley’s first airplane crashes
1903 March: Richard Pearse (NZ) flies 140 m
1903 December: Orville Wright (US) flies 37 m in 12 sec

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 A brief history of flight (cont.)
1905 Wright Flyer III flies 40 km in 38 minutes
1907 Paul Cornu (FR) flies the world’s first helicopter: 1 ft altitude, 20 sec
1908 Madame Therese Peltier (FR) is the first woman to fly solo in an airplane
1908 US military buys its first airplane
1912 New Wright Brothers airplane automatically banks correctly while turning
1914 First scheduled passenger service (St. Petersburg to Tampa, Florida)
1914 Igor Sikorsky (Russia) sets distance record with a 2000 km round trip
1915 NACA (predecessor of NASA) is formed
1916 William Boeing (US) builds his first airplane (Model 1)

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 A brief history of flight (cont.)
1919 First flight across the Atlantic (US Navy flying boats)
1919 First non-stop flight across the Atlantic (British Vickers Vimy)
1924 First round-the-world flight (US Army Air Service)
1926 Robert Goddard (US) launches the world’s first liquid-propellant rocket
1927 First non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic (Charles Lindbergh, US)
1927 NACA builds first wind tunnel large enough to test a full-size airplane
1928 Amelia Earhart (US) is the first woman to cross the Atlantic
1931 Frank Whittle (Britain) patents the first jet engine
1935 The DC-3 becomes the first successful passenger airliner

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 A brief history of flight (cont.)
1939 First flight of a jet-powered airplane (German Heinkel He 178)
1939 Igor Sikorsky’s VS-300 is the first practical helicopter
1940 First flight of the Boeing Stratoliner, first with a pressurized cabin
1942 German Messerschmitt 262 is the world’s first operational jet fighter
1945 Robert T. Jones (US) suggests swept wing for transonic flight
1947 Chuck Yeager (US) breaks sound barrier in Bell X-1
1953 Scott Crossfield (US) goes Mach 2
1954 First jet airliner (Boeing 707) test flight; enters passenger service in 1957
1961 First successful V/STOL fighter (Hawker Siddeley P1127)

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 A brief history of flight (cont.)
1963 US experimental X-15 reaches height of 108 km & speed of 6700 km/h
1966 Boeing 747 revolutionizes mass air transport
1968 Tu-144 (Soviet supersonic transport) flies
1969 Concorde flies; first Atlantic crossing in 1971
1972 First all-electric digital fly-by-wire control system used
1973 Emily Howell Warner becomes first woman captain for a scheduled airline
1977 First successful flight of the human-powered Gossamer Condor
1979 Human-powered Gossamer Albatross crosses the English Channel
1979 First use of winglets to reduce drag (NASA KC-135)

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 A brief history of flight (cont.)
1981 Solar Challenger (first solar-powered plane) flies across the English Channel
1986 J. Yeager & D. Rutan make first non-stop un-refuelled flight around the world
1989 V-22 tilt-rotor Osprey flies
1994 Boeing 777 (first commercial aircraft designed entirely on CAD) flies
2005 Airbus A380 (world’s largest passenger airliner by MTOW) flies
2009 Boeing 787 (first airliner to use composite materials extensively) flies
2013 Airbus A350 (first airliner approved for ETOPS 370) flies
2020 EHang 216 (first 2-seat autonomous aerial vehicle) goes into production

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 Lilium Jet

L1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0idI3sJJKZw 42
 Preliminary test + Reading
• Please do the Preliminary Test,
which is not for marks, and
upload it to Canvas by Friday
• Please read Chapters 1 and 2
of the textbook:

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Either 5th or 6th edition is OK