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3. New Opportunities for Research on Critical Supersonic Technologies
Pages 17-26

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From page 17...
... If an approach to vehicle aerodynamic design can be found that would result in sonic booms with intensities low enough to gain public acceptance and if regulations are changed to allow low intensity sonic booms- the economics of supersonic flight would change dramatically. Studies by NASA's HSR Program identified three key requirements for overland supersonic flight: (1)
From page 18...
... Focused research on vehicle configurations to produce shaped waves, combined with incremental improvements in existing technologies, may lead to vehicle configurations that produce shaped signatures with a maximum amplitude of less than 1.0 lb/ft2 throughout the total sonic boom ground footprint (not just below the aircraft)
From page 19...
... Another critical design conflict arises because the optimum engine bypass ratio decreases as Mach increases. Design compromises result in degraded subsonic performance and lower usable maximum lift during low-speed flight.
From page 20...
... Several promising concepts, while immature, may become key features of a successful future commercial supersonic aircraft. COMMERCIAL SUPERSONIC TECHNOLOGY: THE WAY AHEAD Related Promising Technologies Supersonic aerodynamics could be revolutionized by successful technologies in any of four areas: supersonic laminar flow, other methods for modifying the flow field around the aircraft, unconventional vehicle configurations, and detailed, computational systems for high-fidelity analysis.
From page 21...
... . techniques to predict and control the transition from laminar to turbulent flow, including supersonic naturat laminar flow, passive control techniques, cooling, periodic roughness, and active control methods improved, design-oriented computational fluid dynamics for improved multipoint performance and sonic boom reduction, including adaptive, unstructured methods that achieve the efficiency of current multigrid structured methods and low dissipation methods that can be used in combination with boom propagation codes multidisciplinary design methods compatible with high-fidelity modeling, as well as optimization, decomposition, and methods that exploit parallel computing architectures flight R&T demonstrations to help investigate technologies of interest that remain difficult to validate computationally, or even in existing wind tunnel facilities (NRC, 1994)
From page 22...
... Additional Research Required Configuration Design Implications Both forms of APSE phenomena are exacerbated by vehicle configurations with long and slender fuselages and thin or highly swept wings, by lightweight (hence low stiffness) structural design, and by increased aerodynamic instability, all of which are key factors in achieving high-performance, low-boom commercial supersonic aircraft.
From page 23...
... I ~ ~ : r'' it ~: ~.~ I I, 'I :| ~ art Pi,/' HIGH-FIDELITY INTEGRATED DESIGN TOOLS Highly integrated designs are required for virtually all new aerospace systems. For aircraft, the importance of integration increases with flight speed.
From page 24...
... Analytical design tools, such f. COMMERCIAL SUPERSONIC TECHNOLOGY: THE WAY AHEAD as computational fluid dynamics and finite element modeling, have been greatly improved, but they often take so long to run that they are impractical in an iterative design context, and they are not robust enough to be fully integrated into a design framework.
From page 25...
... Continued development of engines with advanced cycles, such as the variable cycle engine, that are compatible with high cruise efficiency, low community noise, and small, lightweight nozzles could lead to important breakthroughs in the realization of commercial supersonic aircraft. REFERENCES Agrawal, S., and A.G.
From page 26...
... 1995. Exploiting Natural Laminar Flow for Economical Supersonic Transport.


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