Abstract:
Transonic, laminar-flow technology offers the potential for revolutionary improvements in aircraft fuel/energy consumption by significantly reducing skin-friction drag. Various design strategies have been explored by the aerodynamics community, including hybrid laminar-flow-control (HLFC), crossflow-attenuated natural-laminar-flow (CAT-NLF), and slotted, natural-laminar-flow (SNLF) wings. Each has their own advantages and target use cases as well as limitations such as high-lift-system integration.
The author’s experiences have focused on SNLF technology, supported largely through the NASA University Leadership Initiative Program. An overview of the effort, and follow-on industry collaborations, will be shared along with key outcomes from the project. These range from conceptual integration studies to a capstone technology demonstration in the NASA Ames 11-ft transonic wind tunnel at flight-relevant Mach and Reynolds numbers. This, along with other cutting-edge efforts being undertaken across the community, offers a prospectus on how transonic NLF technology can benefit the future of aviation.
Bio:
Dr. Jim Coder is an Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Penn State University where he focuses on computational aerodynamics with emphases on aerodynamic design and boundary-layer transition modeling. Dr. Coder previously held a position at the University of Tennessee Knoxville where he led a NASA University Leadership Initiative project comprised of a consortium of 6 university and 2 industrial partners. His other research interests include rotorcraft aeromechanics and hypersonic aerothermodynamics, with a common goal of improving the physical modeling of aerodynamic phenomena. Dr. Coder is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA and a past chair of the AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Technical Committee.