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fdr
26th Feb 2018, 21:34
Back in the day, from the AP3456A and Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators, we would be briefed on the cause of Mach Tuck, and then go up to altitude and push the blender though to the experience of mach tuck. Was fun, and we didn't have much better to do, beyond drinking beer and getting into mischief that would end up with duty officer duty.

The cause of the tuck was attributed to a rapid movement forward of the shockwave at some point, which resulted in the trim change, and the consequent nose dropping. That worked for some 40 years in my day to day life.

While doing a workup for a flight test for clearance on FAR25.251(b), I had modelled for me a wing section in 3D of the mid outboard section of the design in question. We stepped the operation from relatively low Mach numbers through to Mdive, with an AoA altering to compensate for dV^2, so as to have a relatively constant total lift case (hey, its an approximation, good enough for a start...). The findings were interesting to me at least.

CL, CD and CM behaved more or less normally, until around limit Mach, at which point things got interesting. This point is well short of Mdive, and still short of the Mach for demonstration of compliance. At Mmo+0.02, Cl started to collapse, CD increased and CM started to march. This became more and more pronounced as Mach increased, resulting in approaching a CL=0 condition at M dive. looking at the pressure, temperature and mach plots of the section in 3D, there was nothing of interest on the upper surface, it was all happening on the lower surface. At Mmo +0.02, a strong shock formed on the lower side of the section, and increased in intensity as the mach increased.

For the purposes of the exercise, this observation did alter the manner we did the high speed tests, I elected to ensure that we did them in a manner that substantial thrust was resulting in the overspeed condition, so that in the event of reduction in CL, we were able to reduce speed by more than any pitch down would increase speed. In the end, the tests were not aggressive but were interesting as 251 is always.

The CFD modelling we undertook in DNS was repeated prior to test, and the AOA was modified to account for the non linear reduction in CL at higher speeds, and this mitigated to an extent the effect of the shock development and the reduction in CL/AOA. Ended up, that increasing AOA to maintain constant lift reduced the rate that the lower shockwave developed, and how that collapsed CL/AOA. indicated that a case where an open loop control occurred, where the nose was permitted to lower, and flight path angle lower, would result in a more marked mach tuck event.

I must have been asleep in aero 40 years ago, I cannot recall any comment on the change in CM being attributed to the loss of CL from the establishment of a strong normal shock on the lower surface of the foil. Is there a reference out there that covers the lower normal shock as a causation of tuck that I studiously avoided?

Centaurus
26th Feb 2018, 23:12
In the early 1950's, the British De Havilland twin boom Vampire jet fighter was used in the Royal Australian Air Force. The original Rolls Royce Goblin engine was replaced by the more powerful RR Nene engine. This required the installation of two additional air intakes to the wing root intakes. The additional intakes looked like the carburettor intakes seen on piston engines fitted to typical aircraft such as the DC3.

These additional intakes were installed on top of the fuselage directly behind the cockpit. At the time the Vampires were not fitted with ejection seats.
Shortly after these modified intakes were installed three fatal loss of control accidents occurred during high speed dives. The unfortunate pilots were able to broadcast over their radios what was happening to their aircraft.

These were traced to shock waves forming over the top of the curved shape of the intakes at around Mach 0.76. In turn, this resulted in almost complete loss of elevator effectiveness. The resulting Mach Tuck proved deadly as the aircraft would be still vertical at 10,000 ft with no hope of pulling out before ground contact and no hope of baling out without an ejection seat.

In those days, the dual version of the Vampire was not ready for service and thus we flew the single seat Vampires with the only instruction being a ground briefing and someone leaning over into the cockpit to show you how to start the engine. You got a wave of the hand and told go and fly the thing. Most of us had only 240 hours at the time, and coming straight off Mustangs to the single seat Vampire.

The second trip on the Vampire was done at high altitude in formation with a fighter combat instructor who was experienced on the Vampire and who, in theory, could recognise the onset of compressibility before an inexperienced pilot could. Remember, there was no ejection seat.

The FCI would start the demonstration by flying as No 2 to the "student" Vampire pilot and directing him to enter a full power dive to build up speed. When the FCI could feel his own aircraft starting to tuck under, he would call over the radio for No 1 to close the throttle and extend the dive brakes. The aircraft would slow up and the exercise was complete.

At the time, after I did the exercise with my FCI, I personally wondered why all the fuss about this theory of Mach Tuck. Because I never felt anything untoward during the dive and recovery. Some FCI's were understandably twitchy about delaying recovery too late. To avoid the onset of serious compressibility that may not have been instantly recognised by the student in the other Vampire, these FCI would call off the exercise prematurely while in the initial part of the dive and before onset of compressibility started.

Later, the problem was resolved by removing the air intakes (known as Elephant Ears) from the top of the fuselage and installing them under the fuselage. Now in a high speed dive, the aircraft would pitch up without pilot input approaching Mach 0.77 and Mach Tuck was no more a problem. Ejection seats were installed and that eased anxiety about having to manually bale out if a problem occurred.

Pugilistic Animus
26th Feb 2018, 23:43
Thomas R Yechout, "Introduction to Flight Mechanics" has the answer

fdr
27th Feb 2018, 10:20
Thomas R Yechout, "Introduction to Flight Mechanics" has the answer

Almost, but not quite AFAICS. Yechout describes on pg41 in fig 1.46 a period where lift decreases, but that is not then related to the CM effect which is exhibited as tuck. Yechout describes an oblique shock formation, which occurs when the section has a free stream velocity of M1.0, whereas the section shows a lower surface normal shock, below M1.0 free stream, but well after the upper surface normal shock commences at the sections Mcrit. The lower shock doesn't commence at the trailing edge as Yechout describes.

Thanks for the response however.

Centaurus, thanks for the Vamp info. That was a major pain on the Vampire in it's early days, was covered in some detail by Eric Brown, (along with landing the Vampire without wheels on carriers). The Vamp is running around Reno showing all of us its exhaust which is a bit embarrassing. They are on the edge of marginal longitudinal stability there.

FE Hoppy
27th Feb 2018, 18:24
We were shown these videos (8mm films) back in my basic training at 6fts. Good enough then and I use them in my classes now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSmqsg0DbTY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciIv_7WkPxQ

Pugilistic Animus
27th Feb 2018, 20:33
fdr, I don't have access to my books at the moment to check but you could also see if "Engineering Supersonic Aerodynamics" has it.

it's quite a detailed work...can't recall the author's names

Hope that helps
Maybe Owain Gwyndir will see this thread and provide some further guidance on the issue

Owain Glyndwr
3rd Mar 2018, 08:38
Thanks for the invite PA, but I don't think I have much to say that isn't already well described and illustrated in Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators (fig. 3.9 about p. 220)

Only thing I might add after re-reading the OP is that the trim change might have been largely due to the reduction in downwash over the tail following loss of wing lift. This would reduce the negative tail lift and give a nose down moment. Shock induced separation on the upper surface, by itself, would just reduce the lift over the rear part of the wing and give a nose up tendency.
This might explain why the modelling of the wing flow was inconclusive, although approaching CL=0 it would be a negative AOA so not too surprising that the lower surface behaved a bit like the upper surface would at positive AOA

MaximumPete
3rd Mar 2018, 08:58
We had to experience Mach tuck on the Boeing 707 aircraft, simulator not approved for this exercise, as part of the type rating on the 1179 form.