COMPUTATIONAL AERODYNAMIC PERFORMANCE STUDY OF A MODERN BLENDED WING BODY AIRPLANE CONFIGURATION

In the present commercial air transport scenario, efficient, economically and attractive configurations are urgently needed. Studies have shown remarkable performance improvements for the Blended-Wing-Body (BWB) over conventional subsonic transport. The objective of this research is to assess the aerodynamic performance of a giant size, Blended Wing Body layout, which is expected to have many advantaged over the conventional airplane. To this end, the 3D CAD scaled model of BWB was prepared using commercial modeling software CATIA V5 and flow simulation is done by using ANSYS FLUENT finite volume analysis simulation tool. The center-body of BWB was made with NACA 0012-64, and inner and outer wing was made from supercritical airfoil of NACA S (2) 0710. The tetrahedron 3D meshing is done by ICEM CFD, Spalars-Almaras one equation turbulence modeling is used to consider the turbulence. The results showed that the performance and range of this tested model found highest at 200 angels of attack and glide, endurance and sink rate performance found highest at 250 angels of attack. These parameters are higher compared to existing conventional transport aircrafts.