Experimental investigation of aerodynamic characteristics of an embedded wing-electric ducted fan boundary layer ingestion setup

Given the rapid growth in the field of aeronautics and the significant role played by aircrafts in terms of environmental emissions and noise pollution, there is an urgent need to explore alternative conventional aircraft designs. Boundary layer ingestion (BLI) is highly promising industrial solutions to the challenges of the fuel consumption and environmental pollution. The main idea behind this concept involves embedding the propulsor element within the airframe to ingest a portion of the low momentum region of boundary layer as the inlet flow of the propulsor, thereby reducing wake and boundary layer growth along the airframe surface. The present research focuses on aerodynamic characteristics to study the BLI effects of an embedded system consisting of a symmetric NACA 0024 wing section and an electric ducted fan at a Reynolds number of 0.4 x 10(6) (based on the airfoil chord). Pressure distributions were measured under various conditions, and the results were analyzed from multiple perspectives. Smoke flow visualization tests were conducted to investigate the flow pattern around the model at near-stall and post-stall angles of attack. In addition, the velocity fluctuations upstream of the ducted fan and the mean and fluctuating velocity downstream of the model were measured using hot-wire anemometry. According to the experiments, appropriate results were obtained from BLI, which led to an overall improvement in the aerodynamic coefficients, the elimination of flow separation, and a delay in onset of the stall phenomenon.