Keynote Speakers

The Transonic Truss Based Wing (TTBW) is a high aspect ratio wing that requires a truss to support its large span. The high wing design is beneficial since it allows for integration of efficient large diameter fans and open rotor propulsion systems such as the GE RISE engine concept. TTBW was developed by NASA/Boeing to improve aircraft performance by reaching a lift to drag ratio of ~26. This, along with weight reduction in comparison to cantilever wings reduces the fuel burn. Decades of airfoil design in both the military and commercial sectors have produced highly optimized airfoils for a range of flow regimes. Recent research has largely shifted towards the development of active-flow control (AFC) technology to further improve the airfoil performance. A variety of AFC techniques such as circulation-control airfoils, synthetic jets and plasma actuators have been shown to improve the maximum lift coefficient by delaying flow separation. In this presentation, AFC using a co-flow jet (CFJ) is applied to TTBW to further increase its L/D ratio and energy efficiency. CFJ is a zero-net mass flux active flow control technology that has been shown to improve the performance of supercritical airfoils at transonic conditions at lower angles of attack. A TTBW aircraft configuration is considered with 767 fuselage and Boeing SUGAR IV high aspect ratio wing planform of RAE 2822 supercritical airfoil section. CFJ is implemented at a jet injection location of 3% from the airfoil leading-edge and jet suction location of 75% from the leading-edge. The jet momentum value is chosen so that there is no choking at the suction slot. Computations are performed on unstructured grids at Mach 0.8 and 0.745 for angles of attack ranging from one to five degrees using the CFD solver Ansys Fluent. The RAE 2822- TTBW without CFJ achieves a lift to drag ratio of 21.68 but with the addition of CFJ, this increases to 26.76.

Professor Ramesh K. Agarwal is the William Palm Professor of Engineering in the department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Washington University in St. Louis. From 1994 to 2001, he was the Sam Bloomfield Distinguished Professor and Executive Director of the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University in Kansas. From 1978 to 1994, he was the Program Director and McDonnell Douglas Fellow at McDonnell Douglas Research Laboratories in St. Louis. Dr. Agarwal received PhD in Aeronautical Sciences from Stanford University in 1975, M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1969 and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India in 1968. Over a period of forty-five years, Professor Agarwal has worked in various areas of Computational Science and Engineering – Computational Fluid Dynamics, Computational Acoustics and Electromagnetics, Control and Systems Theory, and Multidisciplinary Design and Optimization. He is the author and coauthor of over 600 journal and refereed conference publications. He has given many plenary, keynote, and invited lectures at various national and international conferences worldwide in over sixty countries. Professor Agarwal continues to serve on many academic, government, and industrial advisory committees. Dr. Agarwal is a Fellow thirty professional societies including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), American Physical Society (APS), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). He has received many prestigious honors and national/international awards for his research contributions including the AIAA Reeds Aeronautics Award, SAE Medal of Honor, ASME Honorary Membership and Honorary Fellowship from Royal Aeronautical Society.

1- Transonic Truss based Wing
2- Co-Flow Jet
3- Active Flow Control
4- High L/D Ratio
5- Large Aspect Ratio