Student Name: Erk Kurban

Advisor: Dr. Juergen Rauleder

Milestone: PhD Thesis Final Examination (Defense)

Degree Program: Aerospace Engineering

Title: Atmospheric Boundary Layer Effects on Ship Airwakes Using Synthetic Eddy Method in Lattice-Boltzmann Simulations

Abstract: Ship deck helicopter landing remains one of the most challenging operations in naval aviation. To ensure such operations are safely carried out, extensive training of prospective pilots is required. One of the first steps of such training involves exercises with flight simulators, which require realistic ship airwake simulations. These simulations are also desired to be highly computationally efficient, which can be challenging to achieve with many conventional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods. This study investigates the aerodynamic characteristics of ship airwakes using the Lattice-Boltzmann Method (LBM), a computationally efficient alternative to conventional CFD methods. The study evaluates how ship geometry, ship surface boundary conditions, and inherent atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) turbulence influence ship airwake simulations and flow structures over the flight deck. The Synthetic Eddy Method (SEM) is implemented within the LBM framework to simulate a realistic, inherently turbulent ABL inflow. The LBM results are validated against wind tunnel data and high-fidelity CFD simulations, demonstrating the LBM’s ability to simulate complex ship airwakes at significantly reduced computational cost without a considerable loss in physical accuracy. Beyond ship airwake simulations, the dissertation introduces a novel, statistics-based pilot workload estimation method. This new method provides an objective framework for predicting pilot workload under various landing conditions without requiring piloted simulations or flight testing. 

Date and time: 2025-11-10, 9.30 AM

Location: Montgomery Knight Building 317 (MK-317)

Committee:
Dr. Juergen Rauleder (advisor), School of Aerospace Engineering
Prof. Suhas S. Jain, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Prof. Giuseppe Quaranta, Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, Politecnico di Milano
Prof. Marilyn J. Smith, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
Prof. Beckett Y. Zhou, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering