Experimental Investigation of the Flow Field in the Close Wake of a Simplified C-130 Shape: a Model Approach of Airflow Influence on Airdrop

Abstract

This paper focuses on the experimental characterization of the vortices structure in the aft fuselage region and in the wake of a simplified geometry of a military transport aircraft. It comes within the framework of the military problematics of airflow influence on airdrop operations. This analysis relies on high-accuracy three-components PIV measurements. An original tool, dedicated to vortex identification and characterization, was developed and successfully applied to the PIV databases obtained for two airdrop configurations: closed cargo- door and ramp, and opened cargo-door and ramp. A complex vortices dynamics is revealed and precisely described, in terms of vortices positions, intensities, sizes, shapes and turbulence levels.