Numerical Prediction of Convective Heat Flux on the Flight Deck of Naval Vessel Subjected to a High-Speed Jet Flame from VTOL Aircraft

Abstract

This study examines the heat flux and convective heat transfer generated when a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft takes off and lands on the flight deck of a naval vessel. A procedure for analyzing the convective heat transfer imposed on the deck by the high-temperature and high-velocity impingement of a VTOL jet is described. For the analysis, the jet velocity and the deck arrival temperature were calculated by applying computational fluid dynamics (CFD), assuming that the heat flow is an impingement jet. The relationships between the diameter of the jet, the speed of impingement, and the exhaust temperature of VTOL are introduced to assess the inlet condition. Heat flow was analyzed using CFD techniques, and Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) and k-ε models were applied to model the turbulent motion. A procedure for evaluating the convection coefficient and convective heat flux from the calculated local velocity and temperature is presented. Simultaneously, a method for compensating the convection coefficient considering the singular velocity at the stagnation point is proposed. Furthermore, the accuracy was verified by comparing the convective heat flux and deck temperature predicted using CFD with the existing experimental studies. Finally, by applying finite element analysis (FEA) based on the thermal-structural interaction, the magnitude of thermal deformation due to conductive temperature and heat flux was presented as a design application of the flight deck.