Computational Mechanics for Aircraft Water Entry and Wind Energy
Abstract
In this thesis, two problems in computational mechanics, namely aircraft water
entry and wind energy, have been studied together with description of related theory
and methodology. Fluid calculations are carried out with proper schemes and computational
techniques, including the use of dynamic mesh with OpenFOAM as the
platform. Subsequent analysis of the data provides valuable information for these
real world problems.
First, algorithms and numerical methods to solve the equations related to the
problems are proposed. Model problems are solved to test these methods. Then, in
the aircraft water entry problem, the complex and dynamic process of aircraft water
entry problem is simulated under several cases. External loading data has been
analyzed to estimate the severity of structural damage. The main finding is that the
vertical diving case is actually a reasonable theory regarding the final moments of
flight MH370 given the currently available information. In the wind energy problem,
blade resolved simulations of wind turbines are carried out. The proper orthogonal
decomposition analysis is shown to be capable of extracting dominant features of
the turbulent flow. Interaction between wind generators are studied to find out that
contra-rotating turbines can better capture energy in the wind.
It has been demonstrated that the computational approach is advantageous in
saving long and expensive processes of laboratory setup and measurements, while
providing valuable information to the subject problem.
Citation
Gu, Cong (2015). Computational Mechanics for Aircraft Water Entry and Wind Energy. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A & M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /156451.