The large civil aircraft experiences extreme loads i.e., during turbulence and 
gusts.  It is a great challenge to avoid clear-air turbulence (CAT), and the 
implications of sudden erratic turbulence on the aerodynamic characteristics of 
a subsonic wing in the troposphere and lower stratosphere have not been 
investigated enough. In particular, there is very little research into how 
turbulent eddies generated by the terrain that surrounds an airport located in a 
valley would interact with a climbing/descending aircraft. 

The aim of this project is to investigate the interactions between CAT (or 
gusts), the aircraft wing, and the formed wake flow. We aim to understand the 
underlying mechanisms for these interactions, and significantly enhance the 
accuracy of their prediction, and therefore to have a much better risk 
assessment of the CAT or gusts.  Having tackled these problems will be 
beneficial to other applications, such as large wind turbines operating in gusty 
atmosphere, drones flying in extremely complex urban environments, front wings 
of race car loosing performance in wake generated by a preceding car.

This project will use Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach to investigate 
the effects of large-scale turbulence on the performance characteristics of an 
aircraft wing during cruise, take-off and landing conditions. Numerical  
simulations will be carried out using the developed CFD software at the 
University of Southampton. 


More details: https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/unsteady-aerodynamics-of-
wings-
in-complex-environments/?p140822

Apply online: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/courses/how-to-apply/postgraduate-
applications.page