An Analysis of Natural Convection in Leading Edge Wing Compartments

Enclosure natural convection has applications in many engineering disciplines such as electronic component cooling, building ventilation and heating, and renewable energy systems such as solar collectors. To date there has been little research on its application in the aeronautical industry where it plays an important role in aircraft heat transfer. Standard civil aircraft comprise of a number of vented and non-vented compartments. One such compartment is the leading edge which houses the main aircraft bleed duct and several electronic devices. Natural convection heat transfer in the leading edge compartment is important during aircraft turn around while systems are running and the exterior of the aircraft is subjected to solar loading. The objective of this paper is to investigate the heat transfer in a leading edge. The effect of an internal heat generating source, a bleed duct, is also investigated. A dimensional analysis of the governing equations is carried out to determine the appropriate scaling groups for the natural convection cases and a numerical simulation is run on a commercial CFD package. The numerical results are compared with experimental measurements obtained from a leading edge test facility. The effect of bleed duct placement is also investigated both experimentally and numerically with good agreement achieved. It was found that bleed duct placement can have a significant effect on the overall temperature distribution within a leading edge compartment. The results provide a basis for the optimisation of natural convection in such aircraft wing compartments.