8/8/2019 telfona: testing for laminar flow on new aircraft

1/4

Testing For Laminar Flow On New Aircraft

A European project supported within the Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development

8/8/2019 telfona: testing for laminar flow on new aircraft

2/4

The requirement to improve upon the environmental performance of aircraft is one of a number of key goals

of the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europes (ACARE) Strategic Research Agenda.

The environmental challenge is to meet continually rising demand for air travel whilst demonstrating

sensitivity to societys needs by reducing the environmental impact of operating, maintaining, manufacturing

and disposing of aircraft and associated systems.

Specific environmental goals have been defined :

To reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 50%.

To reduce perceived external noise by 50%.

To reduce NOx by 80%.

To make substantial progress in reducing the

environmental impact of the manufacture, maintenance

and disposal of aircraft and related products.

Airbus and its European research partners are

making signicant investments to meet these

challenges. In the area of aerodynamic cruise

performance, the goal is to reduce the fuel

consumption. This can be done by improving the

efciency of the engines and by introducing drag

reduction technologies.

The European FP6 project TELFONA will contribute to

these research activities by examining the opportunities

related to the concept of a Natural Laminar Flow large

commercial aircraft. This technology is in service today on

small business aircraft such as the Piaggio P180. The task

for the TELFONA project team is to understand whether

this technology can be scaled up to a large aircraft and then

to assess the drag reduction potential of this concept.

Context

Similar goals have been dened by ACARE in the areas

of Quality and Affordability, Safety, Air Transport

System efciency and Security.

8/8/2019 telfona: testing for laminar flow on new aircraft

3/4

Expected Results

In order to ensure the success of the project in delivering

against the overall objective, the technological development

and innovation-related activities within the project have been

divided into 5 Work Packages. In order to ensure a clear focus

on project management, dissemination and exploitation

activities within the TELFONA project, a sixth Work Package

has been dened to contain these activities.

Project Objectives

The major objective of TELFONA is the development of the capability to predict the in-ight performance of

an NLF aircraft using wind tunnel tests and CFD calculations.

A number of supporting objectives have been dened :

Transition prediction tool calibration for NLF aircraft

testing in ETW using a specially designed wind tunnel

model.

Improvement of transition receptivity models using wind

tunnel test data from ETW and small scale facilities to

better understand how surface quality and atmospheric

conditions inuence transition mechanisms.

Development of methods for predicting the in-flight

performance of an NLF aircraft including understanding

whether conventional scaling approaches using low

Reynolds number wind tunnels can be used.

Validation of the developed methods through the design,

manufacture and test of an NLF wing designed for high

performance.

Development of technology for wind tunnel testing hybridlaminar ow control wings.

The successful completion of the project will result in

two wind tunnel model tests and improved transition

prediction methods. The rst pathnder model will betested in ETW with the results being used to calibrate

transition prediction methods and to provide insight

into the receptivity problem. The second performance

model will be designed using the calibrated methods

and will be used to demonstrate the potential of a largeNLF aircraft.

Work Plan

8/8/2019 telfona: testing for laminar flow on new aircraft

4/4

Aircraft Manufacturers

Airbus UK (UK), Airbus E (Spain),

Airbus D (Germany), Piaggio (Italy)

Industrial Organisation

ETW (Germany)

Research Organisations

VZLU (Czech Republic),

ONERA (France), FOI (Sweden),

CIRA (Italy), DLR (Germany)

Universities

Imperial College (UK), IST (Portugal),

TU-Berlin (Germany), KTH (Sweden)

Consulting Company

ALMA Consulting Group (France)

Project Coordinator:

Airbus UK : Mr. D. Sawyers, +44 117 936 3435david.sawyers@airbus.com

With the support of:

ALMA Consulting Group : A. Hoque, +33 4 72 35 80 30ahoque@almacg.comTELFONA management is operated on the PRODIGE Internet platform :www.prodige.com

The TELFONA consortium consists of 15 organisations from 8 different member states. The consortium

contains 4 aircraft manufacturers, 1 industrial organisation (wind tunnel facility), 5 research organisations

and 4 universities and 1 consulting company.

Acknowledgment

,

Consortium

Supported by the European Commission through the Sixth Framework

Programme for Research and Development up to 3 025 Keuros (out of

a total budget of 5 174 Keuros) the TELFONA project address the area

Strengthening Competitiveness of the Aeronautics and Space thematic

priority.

The project has been running since 1st May 2005 and it will last for 42

months.

Cration::Comte::047

8

39

56

13