Air Force Research Lab to Establish $3M Collaborative Center for Aeronautical Sciences at Ohio State

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photo of a B2 aircraft
The Collaborative Center for Aeronautical Sciences will examine the physics of a variety of defense-related multi-disciplinary problems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate (AFRL/RQ) has selected a team of researchers led by The Ohio State University to establish a Collaborative Center for Aeronautical Sciences. The goal of the CCAS is to establish a flourishing, comprehensive, versatile and synergistic partnership with AFRL/RQ. Project partners include the University of Minnesota and Virginia Tech.

The cooperative agreement will proactively build strategic, high-fidelity computational aerodynamics capabilities for the United States Air Force. A special emphasis will be placed on evolutionary and disruptive research in high-speed aerophysics, fine-scale turbulence and control, non-linear fluid-structural interactions and high-fidelity computational technologies.

image showing digital analysis
The team will complete analyses as part of the project.
Principal investigator of the virtual center is Professor Datta Gaitonde, who directs the High Fidelity Computational Multiphysics Lab in Ohio State’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

The CCAS will begin with an initial five-year effort funded at $3M, with two subsequent two-year optional extensions for a total funding amount of $5.4M.

Through close collaboration with AFRL/RQ, advanced mathematical techniques will be developed and incorporated into massively-parallelized software and subsequently transitioned for use by AFRL and its broad user base.

The CCAS will deploy these tools for physics-based analyses to address emerging challenges in the highly unconventional aerospace vehicle design environment, where multiple non-traditional factors must be considered.

CCAS activity will help reduce the prohibitive expense, and acquisition costs, associated with ground and flight-testing. A particularly crucial objective of the CCAS is to nurture and develop the next generation of aerospace research professionals with proven scholarly accomplishments and possessing the advanced multi-disciplinary skills required for the future aerospace workforce.  Students funded by CCAS will be provided internship opportunities at AFRL to foster deep and lasting direct relationships with engineers performing basic and applied research.

This project builds on Gaitonde’s expertise. He served as the principal investigator of a previous collaborative center, which developed and applied pioneering computational technologies for the design of United States Air Force systems.

Category: Faculty