In this paper, we analyze the trajectory and body attitude data of Felix Baumgartner's supersonic free fall through the atmosphere on October 14, 2012. As one of us (UW) was scientific advisor to the Red Bull Stratos team, the analysis is based on true body data (body mass, wetted pressure suit surface area) and actual atmospheric data from weather balloon measurements. We also present a fully ...

In the present work, we propose a reformulation of the fluxes and interpolation calculations in the PISO method, a well-known pressure-correction solver. This new reformulation introduces the AUSM up flux definition as a replacement for the standard Rhie and Chow method of obtaining fluxes and central interpolation of pressure at the control volume faces. This algorithm tries to compatibilize t...

Deterministic engineering design often leads to unexpected or physically unrealizable results. This is due to the fact that deterministic design is not able to capture the effects of even slight natural fluctuations of parameters. Deterministic transonic shape optimization is no exception: deterministic designs can result in dramatically inferior performance when the actual operating conditions...

A review of recent and historical work in the field of transonic and supersonic ground effect aerodynamics has been conducted, focussing on applied research on wings and aircraft, present and future ground transportation, projectiles, rocket sleds and other related bodies which travel in close ground proximity in the compressible regime. Methods for ground testing are described and evaluated, n...

A novel uncertainty propagation method for problems characterized by highly non-linear or discontinuous system responses is presented. The approach is based on a Padé–Legendre (PL) formalism which does not require modifications to existing computational tools (nonintrusive approach) and it is a global method. The paper presents a novel PL method for problems in multiple dimensions, which is non...

In this contribution, a new and efficient multivariate interpolation scheme is presented which is designed for large-scale coupling problems in the field of numerical aeroelasticity. The scheme is based upon a local application of radial basis functions (RBFs). The new method is tested in several numerical aeroelastic computations, and compared to a competing, widely used global approach. The i...

This article presents analytical and computational analysis of the influence of the wind tunnel walls on transonic airfoil tests. The goal is to quantify the effects of the wind tunnel walls and characterize the key parameters affecting the flow field in order to construct a numerical model to realize experimental data corrections. Firstly, the experimental data are compared with well-documente...

Two global optimization algorithms, namely Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Simulated Annealing (SA), have been applied to the aerodynamic shape optimization of transonic cascades; the objective being the redesign of an existing turbomachine airfoil to improve its performance by minimizing the total pressure loss while satisfying a number of constraints. This is accomplished by modifying the blade ca...

This paper discusses the design optimization of a wing for supersonic transport (SST) using a multiple-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA). Three objective functions are used to minimize the drag for supersonic cruise, the drag for transonic cruise, and the bending moment at the wing root for supersonic cruise. The wing shape is defined by 66 design variables. A Euler flow code is used to evalua...