Aerodynamic Modeling and Analysis of Receiver Under the Disturbance of Tanker’s Wake Flow

Aiming at the wing-mounted and hose-drogue refueling platform of tanker, the disturbance of the wake flow field of tanker on the aerodynamic characteristics of the receiver is studied. Based on the patched mesh technology, the mesh of the tanker, the hose-drogue and the receiver are generated respectively and then patched together to reduce the difficulty of mesh generation. By solving the Reynold Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation, the numerical simulation of the entire flow field of refueling is carried out on the receiver under the influence of the wake flow field of tanker and its engine jet, and the increments of the aerodynamic force and moment coefficient along the flow wise, span wise and height direction of the receiver is obtained. The influence of the wake of tanker on the trim control of the receiver is studied. The finite element method (FEM) is adopted to analyze the aerodynamic loading of the hose-drogue assembly, and the stress and deformation of each element are obtained. Based on the numerical simulation technology of the coupling solution of CFD and FEM, the equilibrium position of the hose-drogue assembly under the influence of the wake field of the tanker is calculated.