Lowest drag ever on debris‐guarded temperature sensor using computational fluid dynamics

Abstract

BFGoodrich Aerospace Aircraft Sensors Division engineers achieved their best ever level of aerodynamic performance on a temperature sensor with a debris guard by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to optimize the design prior to prototyping. Meeting the conflicting needs of protecting the sensing element from debris and achieving the desired level of sensor accuracy and performance made this a very complex problem. CFD allowed engineers to evaluate the performance of 20 different design alternatives within the six‐month lead time for the project. This made it possible to substantially reduce drag relative to current designs while meeting all accuracy and durability requirements. The traditional build‐and‐test method is so much more costly and time‐consuming than CFD that it would have been impossible to evaluate anywhere near this number of alternatives using this approach.

Citation

Trongard, P. and Brown, R. (1998), "Lowest drag ever on debris‐guarded temperature sensor using computational fluid dynamics", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 70 No. 2, pp. 110-112. https://doi.org/10.1108/00022669810202363