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Directional stability characteristics explain the capabilities of a hybrid buoyant aircraft’s performance against the side wind, which induces flow separation that is chaotic in nature and may lead to oscillations of the aerodynamic surfaces. A numerical study is carried out to estimate the effect of side wind. The boundary conditions for the computational domain are set to velocity inlet and pressure outlet. Due to the incompressible flow at the cruise velocity, the density is taken to be constant. For these steady state simulations, the time is discretized in first order implicit and the SIMPLE scheme is employed for pressure velocity coupling alongwith k-ω SST model. Based on the results obtained so far, it is concluded that voluminous hybrid lifting fuselage is the major cause of directional.

Dorsal fin is used in swimming animals like shark for the generation of thrust as well as to meet the requirement of the lateral stability. In the case of aircraft, rudders are normally used for the said requirement. In the present work, this nature inspired idea is explored for its application to neutralize the unavoidable asymmetric thrust produced by the twin engines of a hybrid buoyant aircraft. First, the estimation of asymmetric thrust is obtained with the help of analytical techniques for maximum thrust condition at 4 degree angle of attack. The moment generated by it is utilized for the sizing of a dorsal fin which looks similar to a tapered wing and is placed aft of the center of gravity. Wind tunnel testing at subsonic speed is carried out to explore the design features of this rotatable dorsal fin. It is found that a small rotation of 5 degree can generate the required moment. However, such rotation requires a complete pneumatic/electro-mechanical system and an alternative of it is to use a cambered airfoil for the dorsal fin installed at fixed location. Such a flow controlling device can also be used as an antenna mast, which is commonly installed out the fuselage of the aircraft for communication purposes. Moreover, by incorporating this technique, a pilot doesn’t have to put an extra effort to make the aircraft stable in the presence of side wind.

Wing alone models are usually tested in wind tunnels for aerospace applications like aircraft and hybrid buoyant aircraft. Raw data obtained from such testing is subject to different corrections such as wall interference, blockage, offset in angle of attack, dynamic pressure and free stream velocity etc. Since the flow is constrained by wind tunnel walls, therefore special emphasis is required to deliberate the limitation of correction methods for blockage correction. In the present research work, different aspects of existing correction methods are explored with the help of an example of a straight semi-span wing. Based on the results of analytical relationships of standard methods, it was found that although multiple variables are involved in the standard methods for the estimation of blockage, they are based on linearized flow theory such as source sink method and potential flow assumption etc, which have intrinsic limitations. Based on the computed and estimated experimental results, it is recommended to obtain the corrections by adding the difference in results of solid walls and far-field condition in the wind tunnel data. Computational Fluid Dynamics technique is found to be useful to determine the correction factors for a wing installed at zero spacer height/gap, with and without the tunnel wall.