Aerodynamic Measurements in a Wind Tunnel on Scale Models of a 777 Main Landing Gear

• Main Author: Ringshia, Aditya K.
• Other Authors: Mechanical Engineering
• Format: Others
• Published: Virginia Tech 2014
• Subjects: Particle Image Velocimetry; Pitot-static Measurements; Landing Gear; Hot Film Measurements; Flow Visualization using Tufts
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/34583; http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-08162006-155652/

Aerodynamic measurements were taken over models of the Boeing 777 high fidelity isolated landing gear in the 6- by 6-foot Virginia Tech Stability Wind Tunnel (VT-SWT) at a free-stream Mach number of 0.16. Noise control devices (NCD) were developed at Virginia Tech [9] to reduce noise by shielding gear components, reducing wake interactions and by streamlining the flow around certain landing gear components. Aerodynamic measurements were performed to understand the flow over the landing gear and also changes in the flow between "Baseline" and "NCD" configurations (without and with Noise Control Devices respectively). Hot-film, Pitot-static measurements and flow visualization using tufts were performed over an isolated 26% scale-model high fidelity landing gear for the "Baseline" and "NCD" configurations. Contours of turbulence intensity, normalized wake velocity and normalized total pressure loss for both configurations are compared. The "Baseline" configuration was also compared with the NASA Ames study conducted by Horne et al [7]. Hot-film measurements are also compared to Microphone Phased Array results which were acquired at Virginia Tech by Ravetta [8]. A novel technique for processing hot-film measurements by breaking turbulence into octave bands as acoustic measurements is presented. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurements were taken at six different locations over the 13% scale-model landing gear with no door and at a truck angle of zero degrees. Results are compared to PIV measurements taken over the wheels of a four-wheel landing gear by Lazos [10-12]. PIV results such as average velocity contours and vectors, streamlines and instantaneous velocity contours and vectors are presented. Results presented from PIV and flow visualization are in good agreement with results from Lazos [10-12]. === Master of Science