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The effects of atmospheric turbulence on fuel consumption in extended formation flight
Includes bibliographical references.
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| Main Author: | |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Department of Mechanical Engineering
2014
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| _version_ | 1867614300323971072 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Sanders, Drewan S |
| author2 | Redelinghuys, Christiaan |
| author_browse | Redelinghuys, Christiaan Sanders, Drewan S |
| author_facet | Redelinghuys, Christiaan Sanders, Drewan S |
| author_sort | Sanders, Drewan S |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Includes bibliographical references. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9147 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:49:51.172Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publishDateRange | 2014 |
| publishDateSort | 2014 |
| publisher | Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| publisherStr | Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9147 The effects of atmospheric turbulence on fuel consumption in extended formation flight Sanders, Drewan S Redelinghuys, Christiaan Medicine Includes bibliographical references. Extended formation flight (streamwise separations of between 10 to 40 spans), has been recently proposed as a method for reducing the induced drag of commercial aircraft. However, induced drag savings are not necessarily directly indicative of fuel savings. In a realistic environment, atmospheric turbulence will continuously perturb the formation’s aircraft and their wakes. As a result, each aircraft in the formation will experience fluctuations in aerodynamic loads. For an aircraft to maintain accurately its position within a formation, it must continually adjust its throttle setting. This dynamic throttling may result in inefficient engine operation, thereby detracting from the reductions in induced drag. In this work, a high-fidelity transient engine model, representative of a typical commercial high-bypass turbofan engine, has been incorporated within a simple twin-aircraft formation flight simulator. The aerodynamic interactions between aircraft were modelled using a horseshoe vortex method, specially adapted for extended formations. The aircraft were constrained to longitudinal motion, with altitude fixed. This created a two degree of freedom formation model that is analogous to wind tunnel experimentation. A simple proportional gain controller was used to manipulate the throttle settings, in an attempt to maintain the trail aircraft’s position relative to the leader, in a turbulent atmosphere. It was found that a fuel saving of approximately 25 may be achieved at a practical lateral separation of 1 span, corresponding to a stream-wise separation of 20 ± 0.3 spans, in moderate turbulence levels. 2014-11-05T03:50:54Z 2014-11-05T03:50:54Z 2014 Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9147 eng application/pdf Department of Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Medicine Sanders, Drewan S The effects of atmospheric turbulence on fuel consumption in extended formation flight |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The effects of atmospheric turbulence on fuel consumption in extended formation flight |
| title_full | The effects of atmospheric turbulence on fuel consumption in extended formation flight |
| title_fullStr | The effects of atmospheric turbulence on fuel consumption in extended formation flight |
| title_full_unstemmed | The effects of atmospheric turbulence on fuel consumption in extended formation flight |
| title_short | The effects of atmospheric turbulence on fuel consumption in extended formation flight |
| title_sort | effects of atmospheric turbulence on fuel consumption in extended formation flight |
| topic | Medicine |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9147 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sandersdrewans theeffectsofatmosphericturbulenceonfuelconsumptioninextendedformationflight AT sandersdrewans effectsofatmosphericturbulenceonfuelconsumptioninextendedformationflight |