Engineering Commons^™

Evaluation Of The Aerodynamics Of An Aircraft Fuselage Pod Using Analytical, Cfd, And Flight Testing Techniques, William C. Moonan

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to investigate the execution and validity of various predictive methods used in the design of the aerodynamic pod housing NASA’s Marshall Airborne Polarimetric Imaging Radiometer (MAPIR) on the University of Tennessee Space Institute’s Piper Navajo research aircraft. Potential flow theory and wing theory are both used to analytically predict the lift the MAPIR Pod would generate during flight; skin friction theory, empirical data, and induced drag theory are utilized to analytically predict the pod’s drag. Furthermore, a simplified computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was also created to approximate the aerodynamic forces acting on the …