The aerodynamic effectiveness of a cylinder-flare body at zero incidence under laminar and turbulent boundary-layer conditions has been studied experimentally. Two nose geometries, namely a 10° half-angle sharp cone and a hemisphere, were used. The study has been carried out in a hypersonic gun tunnel at a Mach number of 8·2 and a Reynolds number of 158,100, based on the cylinder diameter, at flare angles 0°, 10°, 20°, 30° and 45°. The surface flow was studied using oil-dot and liquid crystal techniques. Some information regarding the shock layer was obtained from schlieren pictures. The effects of entropy layer and boundary-layer state on flare effectiveness were deduced from pressure measurements over the cylinder and the flare.

Big efforts have been made to optimise the behaviour and the properties of fibre reinforced materials. The fibre-matrix bonding, the influence of the fibre-matrix content and many other relations of several systems have been intensively investigated. Nevertheless, the arrangement of the fibres within a structure was a neglected subject of research.

CAIO (computer aided internal optimisation) was developed to predict the optimal arrangement of fibres for given load and boundary conditions. The mechanism of the method has been adapted from biological structures. CAIO is based on the finite elements method (FEM). In a first step the force flow of a structure is calculated by using FEM. The CAIO routine changes orientation of orthotropic axes into the directions of force flow with respect to the FE-results. A following stress analysis leads to a reduced shear stress distribution. The optimum fibre arrangement is calculated by an automatically iterative process of alternating FE-run and CAIO calculation. The latest version of CAIO allows the calculation of the optimum fibre arrangement in three-dimensional shell structures as well as in three-dimensional volume structures.

An analysis of paraglider performance has revealed that wing section drag is the most significant contribution to overall drag. Wind tunnel measurements performed on two-dimensional hollow models indicate that intake drag is less significant than previously thought. An experimental investigation into the characteristics of a ‘quasi ’ -two-dimensional flexible model consisting of solid ribs covered with a fabric skin was performed at realistic Reynolds numbers. The main cause of performance deterioration was found to be a significant reduction in section lift coefficient when compared to a similar solid wing section. This is believed to be mainly due to two factors: a large trailing edge separation and the deformation of the wing between ribs. The deformation was measured and it was shown that the deformed shape is less capable of generating high lift coefficients than the design section. It is thought that the extent of the trailing edge separation is increased due to the presence of streamwise grooves caused by the shape deformation of the wing. The shape of the separated region was found to be strongly three-dimensional with the separation point being about half a chord-length further upstream along the ribs. A small separation bubble was also observed immediately behind the lip of the intake, due to the fabric ‘flaring’ open. Based on the observations presented a number of suggestions for improved wings have been made.

This investigation discusses some proposed techniques to attenuate rotary wing vibration using smart materials. Advantages and disadvantages of these solutions are analysed in greater detail. Numerical results from feasibility studies are summarised to present the accomplishments already achieved and the goals to be pursued in the near future to develop the next generation of the so-called ‘smart rotors’.

The ability of a CFD technique to evaluate the performance of a heat shield separation system has been demonstrated. The evolution of the differential pressure across the heat shield surface has been estimated. The results of the analysis have been compared with the data from the separation test of the heat shield of an Indian launch vehicle. The pressure on the heat shield surface was estimated by solving the Navier Stokes equations using the Eulerian Lagrangian formulation. The results, which show good agreement with the observed results of a heat shield separation test on the ground, were found to be adequate for design purposes.

Motivated by a lack of sufficient local and national computing facilities for computational fluid dynamics simulations, the Affordable Systems Computing Unit (ASCU) was established to investigate low cost alternatives. The options considered have all involved cluster computing, a term which refers to the grouping of a number of components into a managed system capable of running both serial and parallel applications. The present work aims to demonstrate the utility of commodity processors for dedicated batch processing. The performance of the cluster has proved to be extremely cost effective, enabling large three dimensional flow simulations on a computer costing less than £25k sterling at current market prices. The experience gained on this system in terms of single node performance, message passing and parallel performance will be discussed. In particular, comparisons with the performance of other systems will be made. Several medium-large scale CFD simulations performed using the new cluster will be presented to demonstrate the potential of commodity processor based parallel computers for aerodynamic simulation.