Aero-optic aberrations originating from the nearby flowfield of an aircraft can seriously limit the ability to focus on-board laser systems onto farfield targets. These aero-optic aberrations can be mitigated by using fences to control the flow around the outgoing beam aperture. The objective of this investigation is to attempt to determine the best shape for these fences using computational fluid dynamics in combination with optimization techniques. Future work will experimentally and computationally build on the solutions presented here.
Hemispherical turrets provide an efficient means of mounting an optical system on an aircraft, but are susceptible to the formation of flows, such as shocks and separated shear layers that are known to present a severe optical aberration to the outgoing beam. In this paper, methods are presented to prevent or mitigate the formation of these aero-optic flows using improved aerodynamic shaping of the turret itself. The investigation focuses on the use of the "virtual duct" approach, which has been shown previously to successfully prevent aero-optic flows on an underwing pod up to freestream Mach numbers over 0.8. Computational fluid dynamic results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the virtual duct approach, as well as other mitigation strategies.
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