INFORMATION ON THE RESULTS ACHIEVED IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE KFI-112 TENDER PROJECT

The consortium formed by eCon Engineering Kft. and Infominero Kft. is working on the 2018-1.1.2-KFI tender project designated as “Development of Artificial Intelligence-supported simulation methods for propeller-airframe interaction optimization”, in which we have achieved significant milestones in the recent months.

The total budget of the project is over HUF 366 million, with a support of HUF 244 million provided by the Hungarian Government through the NKFI Fund.

The first part of the in-flight testing series with the ALTUS motor-glider was completed in the summer of 2021 according to plans. During testing the static and total pressures on the aircraft surface and its surrounding were measured with the acquisition system developed in cooperation with the Department of Fluid Mechanics of BME. The pressure measurement was complemented by recording the motion of the yarn strings placed onto the airframe surface using external cameras.

After test data post-processing the CFD simulation of the ALTUS aircraft was carried out for glider and powered operating modes; this allowed the direct analysis of the propeller induced flow in different flight conditions. The comparison of the measurement and simulation results shows that the applied aircraft modelling techniques and the Virtual Blade Model developed by the consortium perform as expected.

In addition to analysing the external flow around the ALTUS aircraft, a detailed CFD model of the engine compartment was created allowing to assess the efficacy of existing air-intakes.

The observed correlation of pressure drops and mass flows can lead to the basis of a reduced order model capable to determine the average amount of air absorbed by the inlets without modelling the detailed engine compartment, thus speeding up the simulation and optimisation processes.

26.01.2022.
Gábor Zipszer – Project Leader