Reduction of Aft Fuselage Drag On The C-130 Using Microvanes

51st AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition AIAA 2013-0105
07 - 10 January 2013, Grapevine (Dallas/Ft. Worth Region), Texas
Reduction of Aft Fuselage Drag on the C-130 Using

Microvanes
Brian R. Smith* and Patrick J. Yagle† and

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth, Texas, 76101
and
John R. Hooker‡
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Marietta, Georgia, 30063
Downloaded by PURDUE UNIVERSITY on August 19, 2016 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/6.2013-105
The aft fuselage of the C-130 is upswept to accommodate the aft cargo ramp. The
upswept aft fuselage accounts for as much as 11% of the total vehicle drag at cruise. While
concepts to reduce this contribution to the C-130 drag were developed in the past, they
interfered with air drop operations and were never integrated into the fleet. Using flow
control technology, a relatively simple, structurally benign, microvane concept with minimal
air drop impact has been developed. In a collaborative Lockheed Martin, Air Force
Research Laboratory program, the microvane concept was matured. Using CFD, the
microvane configuration was optimized. Integration and air drop constraints were evaluated
and an air drop compliant, retrofittable microvane configuration was identified. Flight
testing verified the accuracy of the CFD based drag reduction predictions and confirmed the
viability of the design. The flight test configuration saves between 14 and 30 gallons of fuel
per hour, resulting in a potential fleet wide savings to the USAF of 2.4 million gallons of fuel
per year. With no impact on operational capability and a proven flight test technology
readiness level (TRL), this low-risk solution offers benefits of low-cost and rapid deployment
to the fleet.
I. Introduction
Aft Fuselage Drag on Military Cargo Aircraft

The Lockheed Martin (LM) C-130 Hercules tactical military transport incorporates a dual use aft cargo ramp
which acts as both a loading ramp and a fairing which closes out the aft fuselage shape. This integrated cargo ramp
design is responsible for as much as 11% of the total aircraft drag due to the resulting large aft fuselage upsweep
angle. Numerous studies have been performed over the last 40 years to reduce this large drag contribution through
the incorporation of relatively large aft fuselage mounted strakes. These strake concepts were developed in the
1970’s – 1980’s through wind tunnel and extensive flight testing. While strakes are effective at reducing aircraft
drag, they create integration problems. Results from USAF operational test and evaluations of C-130 aft fuselage
strakes in 1981 indicated that “C-130 airdrop capabilities are severely limited with the strakes installed” and that
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“large container-like loads may require strake removal prior to on or off loading.” They were not incorporated
primarily for these reasons. However, current research has indicated that microvanes, devices approximately 10
inches long and 0.5 to 1.2 inches tall arrayed along the breakline of the aft fuselage as shown in Figure 1, can
significantly reduce the aft fuselage drag penalty while maintaining compatibility with air drop and loading
operations. These devices have been developed using advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods and
their drag reduction performance has been successfully verified with recent flight testing. These tests verified a
*
Lockheed Martin Fellow, Aerodynamics and CFD, P.O. Box 748, MZ 9333, AIAA Associate Fellow
†
Aeronautical Engineer, Staff, Aerodynamics and CFD, Box 748, MZ 9333
‡
Aeronautical Engineer, Senior Staff, Aerodynamics and CFD, MZ 0663, AIAA Senior Member
1
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Copyright © 2013 by Lockheed Martin Corporation. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., with permission.
savings of up to 30 gallons of fuel per flight hour at cruise conditions -- which equates to a savings of 2.4 million
gallons of fuel per year for the entire C-130 fleet.
Figure 1 Depiction of CFD developed microvanes installed on the C-130 aft fuselage prior to flight testing
Microvanes
Flow control technology is focused on identifying receptive locations on a configuration and employing small
scale devices at these locations to control the flow and improve performance. Our goal was to identify a lightweight,
easily retrofittable, flow control based technology to reduce the aft fuselage drag. A proof-of-concept study of flow
control technology for aft fuselage drag reduction employing microvanes was conducted using computational fluid
dynamics. This study indicated that microvanes could be employed to reduce aft body drag on the C-130.
Microvanes are a class of vortex generators that are embedded deep in a boundary layer. Unlike vortex generators
which are typically employed to generate counter-rotating vortices to control a two-dimensional flow separation,
arrays of vanes are typically employed to generate co-rotating vortices. For the aft fuselage, the vanes are oriented
so as to generate vortices whose direction of rotation is opposite to the streamwise vortices that are generated by the
aft fuselage upsweep. The vorticity generated by the vanes counteracts the effects of the 3-D separated streamwise
vortex and keep the main vortex closer to fuselage and greatly weaken it. By this mechanism, pressure recovery on
the aft fuselage is increased, and drag is reduced.
A preliminary investigation of microvane integration issues on the C-130 revealed a possibility that the
microvanes would interfere with parachute drop lines. To address this issue, a smooth, snag-free vane was invented
for integration in regions of possible interference with drop lines. A US patent has been awarded covering the
Microvane concept, and a patent application has been submitted to cover the snag-free microvane concept.
Program Overview
The objective of the present work is to optimize a vane configuration to reduce aft fuselage drag on the C-130.
The size of the vanes found to be effective for drag reduction is between 0.3 and 1.6 inches in span (height above
aircraft surface) and 10 inches in chord (length). Since the C-130 is approximately 100 feet in length, sub-scale wind
tunnel testing of microvane technology would result in fabricating vanes with spans of less than 0.1 inch at much
lower wing chord Reynolds numbers than would be obtained in flight. For this reason, computational fluid dynamics
methods are the basis of the optimization of the flight test configuration. The design of experiments (DOE)
technique is employed to investigate the parameter space for the microvane configuration, and determine an
optimum configuration within a constrained parameter space. Using the insight derived from the DOE, a flight test
microvane configuration is finalized. The flight test validates the CFD results and also provides and assessment of
the effectiveness of the microvane configuration over a range of flight conditions.
The next section of the paper describes the computational and analytical methods employed in the development
of the microvane configuration. The following section provides results of the design of experiments analysis. The
rationale for the flight test configuration is then be presented along with performance predictions. Flow visualization
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of the flight test configuration is then presented showing the key contributions of the microvanes to the C-130
flowfield. The air drop and stability and control impact of microvanes are assessed. Finally, a comparison between
the CFD-based and flight test drag reduction predictions and the flight test is shown. The paper concludes with a
brief summary.
II. Approach
CFD Application overview

The C-130 aft fuselage and microvanes both generate streamwise vortices. While the aft fuselage vortex is a
form of 3-D separation, it does not generate strong unsteadiness, and simulation with a steady-state RANS method is
appropriate. Similarly, the microvanes generate streamwise vortices which can be captured with a RANS simulation.
RANS simulations with a two transport equation turbulence model proved give accurate predictions of microvane
performance.
Evaluation of microvane technology is challenging because of the range of scales involved in the microvane
flowfield. The span (height) of the microvanes analyzed for C-130 drag reduction is between 0.3 and 1.6 inches tall,
and arrays were analyzed with up to 30 vanes for each side of the aircraft. The typical mesh resolution required for
accurate drag prediction on a transport is insufficient to capture the small scale flow features generated by
microvanes. However, it is not practical to resolve the entire aircraft at the resolution required to capture the effects
of the microvanes. Unstructured grid methods allow a high resolution mesh to be employed in the vicinity of the
vane array, sufficient to capture the details of the small scale vane generated vortices. Grid resolution sufficient for
aerodynamic lift and drag predictions is employed over the remainder of the configuration. This approach allows
variations in the vane array to be rapidly meshed and evaluated in the optimization process, while providing accurate
drag increments due to the vanes.
Flow Solver Description

The LM Aero Falcon Navier-Stokes flow solver was used for initial evaluation and optimization of the flow
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control configuration. Falcon is an unstructured flow solver capable of handling multiple mesh elements including
triangular prisms, tetrahedra and hexahedra. The code employs a finite volume formulation with an upwind biased,
Roe based flux scheme. The code is second order accurate spatially for both the viscous and inviscid flux terms. The
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Venkatakrishnan limiter proved accurate and has good convergence characteristics for the flow near the vanes and
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was used throughout the study. The k-kl turbulence model was used for all the optimization analyses. The k-kl
model is a general, two transport equation turbulence model. One particularly attractive feature of the model is that
the model equations can be resolved in the near wall region without excessively fine grids. Both the Falcon flow
solver and the k-kl turbulence model have been validated extensively for both external and internal flows over a
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range of Mach numbers. Falcon with has been used extensively to simulate flows for the F-35 and agreed well with
experimental data and other flow solvers applied at the Drag Prediction Workshop.
Since our program plan employed CFD as the basis for developing and assessing the drag reduction prior to
flight test, we checked our prediction of drag reduction increments by comparing result from Falcon to USM3D, a
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tetrahedral based Navier-Stokes flow solver from NASA. The drag reduction increments due to microvanes
predicted by the two flow solvers agree within two drag counts. This agreement increases our confidence in the
accuracy of our CFD based predictions of microvane performance.
Model and Mesh Descriptions

For the purposes of microvane configuration development, the computational model of the C-130 aircraft is
simplified to reduce turn-around time. The engine nacelles are omitted from the model and the propulsion effects are
not included. All control surfaces were kept in their neutral position. Control-surface gaps are eliminated. Since
propulsion effects are not modeled and sideslip is not of interest, the aircraft is modeled with a half-model. A
computational symmetry boundary condition was applied at the aircraft centerline.
The computation grids for concept development are generated using the GridGen/Pointwise software. The grids
are unstructured, employing prism, pyramid and tetrahedral cell types. Leading and trailing edges of the aircraft, as
well as edges of the microvanes, are modeled using anisotropic triangles for better curvature resolution and mesh
quality. For a representative grid, there are ~800,000 surface triangles representing the half-model of the aircraft.
Nearly half of these are used to model the region of interest, the lower/aft fuselage.
The initial wall spacing is 0.000625”, which results in a y+ of 5 or less for the entire aircraft. This is sufficient to
obtain accurate skin friction predictions with the k-kl model. The boundary conditions for the entire aircraft skin are
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no slip. Layers of triangular prisms are used to model the boundary layer. The growth rate for these layers is 25%.
Layers are added to the mesh until the prism mesh blends smoothly with isotropic tetrahedral mesh that surrounds
the layers. A maximum of 40 layers are grown. A typical mesh has 32 million total volume cells, with 22 million
prism cells in the boundary layer near the aircraft. Figure 2 shows a sample CFD mesh for the C-130 drag increment
prediction.
.
Anisotropic
surface mesh
Prism layers
Isotropic
surface mesh
Isotropic
volume mesh
Figure 2: Example unstructured CFD mesh.
The smooth snag-free microvanes are modeled using isotropic triangles no larger than 0.1 inch on a side. A
typical snag-free vane is represented by approximately 6750 triangles. Figure 3 shows a representative surface mesh
on a snag-free microvane.
Uniform surface mesh
Figure 3: Snag-free microvane surface mesh.
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The blade microvanes are modeled using anisotropic triangles near the edges and isotropic triangles away from
the edges. The anisotropic triangle height normal to the edges is 0.02”. The isotropic triangles are no larger than
0.15”. A typical blade microvane is represented by approximately 7500 triangles. See Figure 4 for a representative
blade microvane surface mesh.
Anisotropic mesh at vane edges

Figure 4: Blade microvane surface mesh.

Our objective is to predict drag increments within one count to ensure that our optimizations are accurate. This
level of precision is difficult to achieve with computational meshes in the 20-30 million cell range on a complete
aircraft. In order to prevent variations in the grid over parts of the aircraft far from the vanes from influencing drag
predictions, the meshes on the surface of the aircraft used for the baseline and installed vane simulations are
identical. This is achieved by adding a single row of triangles along the base of the vane location when vanes are not
present in a simulation. All other surface triangles are unchanged. Figure 5 illustrates this approach.
Vane present
Vane removed
Figure 5: Aircraft surface mesh with a vane removed.
5
Design of Experiments Method
A design of experiments (DOE) method was employed to assist in optimization of the microvane configuration.
The DOE method determines the performance of a system over a broad parameter space using a relatively small
number of samples or “experiments”. The DOE method allows the optimal configuration to be determined rapidly.
The impact of modifications to the optimal configuration can be easily estimated using the DOE analysis without the
need to generate additional simulations. Typically, the DOE parameter space is refined following the initial DOE
analysis with additional samples near the initially estimated optimum to improve the resolution of the parameter
space near the optimal location of interest. The predicted optimum is usually tested to confirm the accuracy of the
DOE analysis. Using the DOE approach, a complex parameter space can be efficiently interrogated and an optimal
configuration identified without excessive test point evaluation.
For our DOE application, A Box-Wilson, or central composite design was used, with 3 levels for 3 design
factors. This 3-factor, 3-level design characterizes the design space using 15, as opposed to 27 test points for a full-
factorial analysis. It provides first- and second-order effects of the design factors.
The neural network graphical user interface (NNGUI) was used to fit a two hidden layer, feed-forward neural
network to the DOE results, resulting in an analytic expression for the data as a function of the inputs. For situations
where training data is sparse, as was true for this effort, each network was trained for a limited number of epochs.
Graphical analysis tools in NNGUI were then used to examine the curve fits to ensure there were no sharp jumps in
the neural network fit and that the training data trends were appropriately captured. After the neural network fits
were examined and proven to be satisfactory, the tool produced a Visual Basic function that was included as a macro
in Excel, allowing the user to predict the output for different values of the inputs.
III. Configuration Optimization
Design of Experiments Study for Microvane Configuration Optimization

There are a large set of vane parameters that can potentially influence the performance of microvanes for C-130
drag reduction. These parameters include:
Location of vanes relative to aft fuselage break line

Length
Height
Planform shape
Angle of attack
Number of vanes
Spacing between vanes
This large set of parameters presents a challenge for optimization of the microvane configuration. Accurate
prediction of microvane performance on the C-130 requires simulations with tens of millions of gridpoints with
regions of fine grid resolution. As a result, each configuration requires significant computational time to complete.
In addition, while the generation of the unstructured meshes does not require an excessive number of man hours,
development of the vane geometries for different vane positions and shapes is not insignificant. This drove our
decision to employ the DOE method to optimize the vane configuration.
Microvanes have been developed and employed on several LM Aero programs, and guidelines for effectiveness
have been established through those efforts. In addition, during the initial proof of concept C-130 microvane drag
reduction effort, some of the requirements specific to the C-130 application were determined. As a result, we fixed
some of the vane characteristics prior to optimization for vane height, vane angle of attack and the number and
location of vanes in the axial direction.
Blade vane configuration: The initial optimization of the microvane configuration was performed using blade
shaped vanes, 0.125 inches thick. The blade vane configuration has proven effective in generating streamwise
vorticity for boundary layer control on numerous applications. The leading edge of the vane is swept at 45°. The
trailing edge of the vane is not swept. The notched blade vane is shown in Figure 4.
Smooth vane configuration: Prior to the vane optimization effort, LM developed a smooth, snag-free vane
concept. The snag-free vane eliminates potential problems with snagging parachute drop lines. Figure 6 shows
baseline snag free vane configuration. Using vanes installed on a flat plate with a boundary layer, the effectiveness
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of the snag free vane was compared to a notched blade vane. The snag free vane was found to be slightly less
effective than the blade vane for the same height and length.
Tapered LE
Tapered TE
Vane Cross
Section
Figure 6: Smooth vane configuration. Depicted vane is 0.6 inches tall and 10 inches long
Formulation of design of experiments (DOE) study

To optimize the height, number of vanes and angle of attack, a 3 parameter DOE study was conducted. The
bounds and center point for the DOE parameters employed are shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Parameters for DOE Analysis

Vane Height (inch) Angle of Attack from Number of Vanes
Local (degrees) from Furthest Aft
Minimum 0.3 15 10
Center Point 0.6 25 20
Maximum 1.2 35 30
For the initial DOE analysis, 15 CFD simulations with gridded blade vanes were generated. The simulations
were run at a cruise configuration, 2 degrees angle of attack, Mach 0.53 and a wing chord Reynolds number of
2.45x107. The DOE inputs were evaluated at the eight corner points of the 3-D parameter space, that is points
combining the maximum and minimum parameters, and at 6 points representing the maximum or minimum of each
parameter with the central value of the other two. The final point used is the central point for all three parameters.
The first cycle of the DOE using these bounds did not clearly define an optimal configuration – there are several
regions of the parameter space with comparable maximum drag reductions. In order to better define the parameter
space, four additional points were generated with tall vanes. When these points are added to the DOE analysis a
single optimum is captured within the original DOE parameter space. With this refinement, the maximum drag
reduction is obtained with a vane height of 0.8 inches, an angle of attack of 17.2 degrees, and 30 vanes. A simulation
was performed for this set of parameters and the DOE analysis was repeated. Since the predicted optimum did not
change significantly for this analysis, this was selected as the best performing vane set. The predicted drag
increments from our second cycle and third cycles of DOE are summarized in Table 2.
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Table 2: Addition test points for second cycle DOE analysis
Vane Height Angle of Attack Number of Vanes Counts of Drag
(inches) from Local (degrees) from Furthest Aft Reduction
Min angle & number 1.6 15 10 9.8
Min angle & max number 1.6 15 30 13.4
Mid angle, mid number 1.6 25 10 12.0
Mid angle and number 1.6 25 20 9.8
Moderate Value 0.8 17.2 30 14.9
Configuration Optimization
Based on the findings of the DOE study and careful examination of the vortical flowfield obtained from the CFD
simulations, we postulated that higher levels of drag reduction could be obtained by generating more vorticity near
the tail of the aircraft and less vorticity forward. Vane configurations were tested with the vane angle of attack fixed
at 17.2 degrees and the vane height ramped up from the front to the back of the array. For the four ramped
configurations tested, the best result were obtained with the height of the front vane at 0.3 inches, and the height of
the aft vane at 1.2 inches as shown in Table 3. All vanes were at 17.2 degrees angle of attack to the local flow
direction and all were blade vanes.
Table 3: Effect of constant vs ramped vane height on drag reduction. All vanes are blade vanes at 17.2
degrees angle of attack to local flow direction on surface of C-130.
Type Height First Vane (inches) Height Last Vane (inches) Counts of Drag Reduction
Constant 0.8 0.8 14.9
Ramped 0.3 1.2 16.1
Ramped 0.3 1.0 15.4
Ramped 0.5 1.0 15.6
Ramped 0.5 1.2 15.9
Based on this study, we chose the ramped vane configuration with a height of 0.3 inches at the front of the
configuration and 1.2 inches for the vane furthest aft. With the optimal blade vane configuration established, the
final flight test configuration was developed. For the flight test configuration, snag-free vanes are used where vanes
can interfere with parachute drop lines. In addition, conflicts with doors and door struts were resolved. The front 16
vanes were snag-free, and the back 14 vanes were blade vanes. This results in 14.9 counts of drag reduction, 1.2
counts less than achieved with the all blade vane configuration.
A second issue that had to be considered is the interference of the cargo bay door and the door strut with the
microvanes. The door is in the path of several of the vanes and the door strut makes installation of the 12 th vane
impossible. Figure 7 shows the conflicts between the door and strut and the microvane configuration. A variety of
vane configurations were analyzed to resolve these conflicts. Table 4 shows the results of this study.
Strut Interference
Door Interference
Figure 7: Conflicts with vane installations due to door and door strut.
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Table 4: Vane configurations evaluated for selection of flight test configuration
Sharp Vanes Smooth Vanes Counts of Drag ReductionD
17-30 1-16 14.9
17-30 5-11, 13-16 15.2
17-30 Shortened 1-4 and 12, Regular 14.8
5-11 and 13-16
17-30 5-11, shortened 12, 13-16 15.1
17-30 7-11, shortened 12, 13-16 15.0
17-30 9-11, shortened 12, 13-16 14.9
17-30 11, shortened 12, 13-16 15.0
17-30 11, 13-16 14.7
17-30 13-16 14.7

17-30 no smooth vanes 13.8
It should be noted that the first four vanes, when changed to snag-free vanes, actually increase drag, and their
removal increases performance. The configuration selected for flight testing removes all of the forward 12 vanes.
The small drag reduction attributable to these forward vanes is insufficient to justify their inclusion in the flight test
configuration given the cost and complexity of their installation.
IV. Flow Visualization
Helicity
The microvanes reduce drag by modifying the 3-D separation of the aft fuselage vortex. The effect of the vanes
can best be appreciated by looking at contours of helicity, the dot product of velocity and vorticity, which highlights
streamwise component of vorticity. Figure 8 shows the helicity contours at multiple stations along the C-130 aft
fuselage without microvanes. Figure 9 shows helicity contours for the optimized flight test configuration with
microvanes. The large vortex, with pink helicity contours in Figure 8, results from the 3-D separation of flow over
the break line caused by the upsweep of the aft fuselage. Microvanes greatly diminish the size and strength of this
vortex, as can be seen in Figure 9. The shrinkage of this vortex improves pressure recovery along the aft fuselage,
resulting in lower drag.
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Figure 8: Contours of helicity (ft/sec2) at selected fuselage stations for the baseline C-130 at cruise conditions,
no microvanes
Figure 9: Contours of helicity (ft/sec2) at selected fuselage stations for the C-130 with the optimized flight test
microvane configuration at cruise conditions
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Surface Pressure and Simulated Oil Flow
The effect of vanes on the drag can be seen more directly by looking at the contours of the pressure coefficient
along the surface of the aft fuselage of the C-130. Figure 10 shows the pressure coefficient along the aft fuselage for
the baseline configuration, while Figure 11 shows the pressure coefficient for the optimized flight test configuration.
Figure 10: Pressure coefficient on C-130 aft fuselage, baseline configuration, no microvanes
Figure 11: Pressure coefficient on C-130 aft fuselage, with and without microvanes.
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V. Air Drop Compatibility
The aft body microvanes have been designed to be compatible with air drop operations, incorporating lessons
learned from previous aft fuselage strake integration efforts. As depicted in Figure 12, smooth, snag-free
microvanes were incorporated below water line 205.3” (which defines the top of the paratroop side door), to prevent
interference with static lines. In addition, the impact of the microvanes on the aft flowfield characteristics were
assessed (with both the ramp open and closed) to ensure they do not lead to significant changes that could impact air
drop operations. This assessment included both flowfield surveys and particle trajectory comparisons. Paratroop
representative trajectories from the side door and bundle representative trajectories from the ramp are depicted in
Figure 13 and Figure 14, respectively, at typical air drop flight conditions with and without the microvanes installed.
These figures indicate that the microvanes have no significant effect on air drop operations. This finding will be
confirmed with follow-on air drop flight testing.
Static Line
Considerations
Static Line
Considerations
Figure 12: Snag-free vanes were incorporated below water line 205.3” (the top of the side paratroop door) to
prevent interference with static lines
Figure 13: Depiction of paratrooper representative trajectories for jumps from the side door with and
without microvanes installed (Powered, 0% Flaps, 250 lbs)
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Figure 14: Depiction of bundle representative trajectories for drops from the aft cargo ramp with and
without microvanes installed (Powered, 50% Flaps, 500 lbs bundle)
VI. Aircraft Stability and Control Impact

The effects of the microvanes on the aircraft stability and control characteristics were assessed using results from
the USM3D Navier-Stokes flow solver. A stability and control (S&C) aerodynamic database was developed using
CFD results from configurations with control surface deflections both with and without the microvanes installed.
The configurations analyzed included combinations of 0-, 50-, and 100-percent flap settings with elevator settings of
10, 0, -20, and -40 degrees. For the clean, no microvane configurations, the CFD results were validated with wind
tunnel and flight test derived aerodynamic data. This provided confidence in the CFD predicted incremental effects
due to the installation of microvanes. These increments were then applied to the documented C-130 aerodynamic
database to demonstrate the predicted effects on the flight test aircraft. A CFD database consisting of approximately
50 meshes and 100 Navier-Stokes solutions was generated in support of this assessment. Representative results
illustrating the impact of the installation of the microvanes on the aircraft lift and pitching moment characteristics
are depicted in Figure 15 and Figure 16, respectively, for a 50% flap configuration with various elevator settings.
From these figures it can be seen that the microvanes have no measureable effect on the aircraft stability and control
characteristics.
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A
Lift Coefficient
Angle of Attack ( )
Figure 15: Impact of microvanes on the lift characteristics of the C-130 with 50% flaps deployment
A
Pitching Moment
Angle of Attack ( )
Figure 16: Impact of microvanes on the pitching moment characteristics of the C-130 with 50% flaps
deployment
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VII. Flight Test Verification
Flight test data was collected for both the baseline (no microvanes) and microvane installed configurations.
Consistent airplane loading (weight and CG) and test conditions (altitude and airspeed) were maintained to eliminate
airplane-dependent effects and biases. Raw, measured, and derived parameters were used in the drag analysis. The
raw parameters included un-calibrated airspeed and altitude from a wingtip mounted boom, ground speed and
aircraft attitude from the inertial navigation system (INS), engine power lever angle (PLA) and horsepower from the
full authority digital engine controls (FADEC), engine fuel flow from calibrated fuel flow meters, and airplane
weight from the mission computer (MC). Derived parameters included calibrated airspeed and altitude from the
wingtip boom.
Results from the flight test are depicted in Figure 17 with the measured drag increment due to the installation of
the microvanes plotted as a function of aircraft lift coefficient. It highlights that the largest drag savings are
associated with lower lift coefficients where the aircraft angle-of-attack is lowest. As the angle-of-attack goes up,
the aft fuselage upsweep angle is reduced, effectively reducing the upsweep angle drag penalty and microvane
effectiveness. Also plotted in this figure is the pre-test CFD predictions generated with USM3D which included
propeller effects simulated with a validated actuator disk model. The figure highlights that there is excellent
correlation between the flight test measured drag increment and the pre-test CFD predictions – within 1 drag count.
These results validate the drag savings of the microvanes installed on the C-130.
A
Drag Increment (ΔCD)
Lift Coefficient
Figure 17: Flight test measured drag savings due to the installation of microvanes and the correlation with
pre-test CFD predictions
VIII. Summary
Using flow control technology and CFD simulation methods, a low cost, light-weight retrofittable microvane
approach to reduction of aft fuselage drag on the C-130 was developed. Using CFD simulations as input to a DOE
optimization technique, the drag reduction benefits were increased, resulting in a fuel savings of 14 to 30 gallons per
hour for the C-130. Using CFD methods, the integration impacts of microvanes on air drop and stability and control
were found to be minimal and acceptable. The small scale of the microvanes relative to the scale of the C-130 made
wind tunnel testing difficult, resulting in a decision to go directly from CFD-based design to flight test. Excellent
agreement was obtained between CFD and flight test based performance predictions, validating the CFD-based drag
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reduction predictions. A future flight test to verify air drop compatibility is planned, paving the way for integration
of microvanes on the USAF C-130 fleet.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the AFRL program manager, Dennis Carter, in the
performance of this contracted research effort. Additionally, we would like to acknowledge the efforts of the
following LM personnel: Brant Maines, Ed Ma and Ed Digirolamo played key roles in the initial development of the
microvane drag reduction concept. Dave Jensen generated the USM3D CFD results, Neil Hall performed the
stability and control analyses, Lance Bays assessed the fuel savings from flight test results, and Kyle Smith directed
and managed the overall research and development program.
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No. 11, November 1998, pp. 1975-1982.
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Reduction of Aft Fuselage Drag On The C-130 Using Microvanes

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Reduction of Aft Fuselage Drag On The C-130 Using Microvanes

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51st AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition AIAA 2013-0105

07 - 10 January 2013, Grapevine (Dallas/Ft. Worth Region), Texas

Reduction of Aft Fuselage Drag on the C-130 Using

Brian R. Smith* and Patrick J. Yagle† and

Aft Fuselage Drag on Military Cargo Aircraft

CFD Application overview

Flow Solver Description

Model and Mesh Descriptions

Figure 2: Example unstructured CFD mesh.

Uniform surface mesh

Figure 3: Snag-free microvane surface mesh.

Anisotropic mesh at vane edges

Figure 4: Blade microvane surface mesh.

Figure 5: Aircraft surface mesh with a vane removed.

III. Configuration Optimization

Design of Experiments Study for Microvane Configuration Optimization

Location of vanes relative to aft fuselage break line

Formulation of design of experiments (DOE) study

Table 1: Parameters for DOE Analysis

17-30 13-16 14.7

IV. Flow Visualization

VI. Aircraft Stability and Control Impact

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