STTR Phase I: Integrated High Lift Propulsor

这一小型企业技术转让(STTR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是使先进的电动升降机能够以负担得起的、节能的设计，创造出能够将人和物运送到新地点的飞机。该项目减少了运输成本和排放，可能会确保先进的空中交通市场--预计到2030年将增长到1200亿美元--发展与社区兼容、经济和社会相关的交通能力。该项目开发的基本空气动力学技术可能适用于各种飞机尺寸和任务，在国防、公共安全和人道主义角色方面实现新的能力，并通过在城市、郊区和服务不足的农村地区实现负担得起的先进机动性和物流来提高公众的生活质量。该技术效率的提高可能使这些好处得以实现，同时减少对环境的影响。该STTR第一阶段项目旨在确认一种新的分布式电力推进增升方法的可行性，该方法将低速性能的高升力与使用新型集成推进器的低阻力、巡航效率高的机翼设计相结合。该项目将探索螺旋桨和机翼之间复杂且尚未完全了解的气动相互作用，这是技术和商业成功的关键。技术目标包括：表征滑流对机翼压力分布和附面层特性的影响，螺旋桨和机翼外形和位置的变化对高升力性能的影响，以及布局的飞机水平效应和权衡。该项目寻求通过实验风洞研究和计算流体动力学(CFD)模拟和分析相结合的方式来实现这些技术目标，以彻底了解和表征复杂的流动物理及其对飞机性能和设计的影响。这一努力可能会推动螺旋桨-机翼相互作用空气动力学领域的发展。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is to enable the affordable and energy-efficient design of advanced powered lift aircraft, creating aircraft capable of transporting people and things to new locations. The reduction in transport cost and emissions made possible by this project may ensure that the advanced air mobility market, expected to grow to $120 Billion by 2030, develops community-compatible, economically- and socially-relevant mobility capabilities. The fundamental aerodynamic technology developed by this project may be applicable to a wide range of aircraft sizes and missions, enabling new capability in defense, public safety, and humanitarian roles as well as improving the quality of life for the public by enabling affordable, advanced mobility and logistics in urban, suburban, and underserved rural areas. The increased efficiency of the technology may enable these benefits to be realized while reducing the environmental impacts.This STTR Phase I project seeks to confirm the feasibility of a new method of distributed electric propulsion for lift augmentation that combines high lift for low-speed performance with low drag, cruise-efficient wing design using a novel integrated propulsor. The project will explore the complex and incompletely understood aerodynamic interaction of a propeller and wing, which is key to technical and commercial success. The technical objectives include: characterizing the slipstream influence on the wing pressure distribution and boundary layer characteristics, the influence of variations in propeller and wing configuration and location on high lift performance, and the aircraft level effects and tradeoffs of the configuration. The project seeks to meet these technical objectives with a combination of experimental wind tunnel research and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and analyses to thoroughly understand and characterize the complex flow physics and their impacts on aircraft performance and design. The effort may advance the propeller-wing interaction aerodynamics field.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.