Aerodynamics Modeling

Dear Colleagues, 

Aerodynamics is intimately associated with the invention of the airplane that was made possible by Sir George Cayley’s identification of the four relevant forces: lift, weight/gravity, thrust, and drag. Cayley’s separation of the concepts of lift, thrust, and control at the end of the 18th century is considered the dawn of fixed-wing flying machines. However, in the beginning of that century, Newton’s law of Mechanics was also a decisive step in the development of aerodynamics, followed by other, no less important work, such as that of Bernoulli, Euler, Reynolds, Prandtl, von Kármán, and others. 

The applications of modern aerodynamics have been evolving from the Wright Brothers’ low-speed fixed-wing airplane to many other flow environments and different properties of the flow: compressible, viscous, supersonic, turbulent, reactive, automobiles, bridges, wind turbines, environment and pollution, heating and ventilation, sports (soccer, golf, sailing, etc.), insects and bird’s flight, etc. 

The design for all applications, environments, and flow properties has a common requirement that consists of the knowledge of the flow field and forces developed. The ideal and cheapest approach would be the mathematical solution of all the equations governing the phenomena and representing the geometry details. Unfortunately, this can only be achieved for simplified geometries or flow conditions that frequently remain far away from practical applications. Nevertheless, important progresses have been obtained using those approximate methodologies and then experimentally testing the most promising solutions. Additionally, the diagnostic techniques and equipment have significantly improved both in terms of accuracy and acquisition/processing times, but the design based exclusively on experimental techniques still has a huge weight on the total development cost and time. In recent years, big improvements in aerodynamics modeling have been achieved with the availability of higher-capacity computers and new physical and numerical models that have substantially reduced the experimental testing cost and time. 

The aim of this Special Issue of Energies is to gather the most recent research in Aerodynamics Modeling that contributes to the sustainable development of science, technology, and engineering. Papers are solicited in the field of theoretical, experimental, and computational approaches to Aerodynamics Modeling. Potential topics include but are not limited to flight or ground vehicle aerodynamics, methods for aerodynamics modeling, and novel studies or technological applications related to Aerodynamics Modeling applications. 

This Special Issue welcomes original research articles on the state-of-the-art of new methodologies, theoretical, analytical, experimental, and computational tools applied to Aerodynamics. Potential topics are listed below, but work in related areas is also encouraged. 

Prof. Jorge M. M. Barata
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Aerodynamic design and aircraft flight dynamics: analysis, methodologies, optimization, and performance
• Aerodynamic testing: ground, wind-tunnel, and flight testing
• Aerodynamic–structural dynamics interaction
• Aeropropulsive interaction
• Airfoil/wing/configuration aerodynamics
• Cavity flows
• High angle of attack and high-lift aerodynamics
• Low speed, transonic, supersonic, and hypersonic aerodynamics
• Multi-phase flows
• Propeller/rotorcraft/wind turbine aerodynamics
• Unmanned, bio-inspired, solar-powered aerial vehicle design
• Unsteady aerodynamics
• Vortical/vortex flow aerodynamics
• VSTOL/STOVL/STOL Applications
• Topics in innovative aerodynamics modeling