Abstract
Flight tests and wind tunnel experiments face difficulties in investigating the impact of aircraft carrier air-wake on the landing process. Meanwhile, numerical methods generally exhibit low overall computational efficiency in solving such problems. To address the computational challenges posed by the disparate spatiotemporal scales of the ship air-wake and aircraft motion, a domain precursor inflow method is developed to efficiently generate unsteady inflow boundary conditions from precomputed full-domain air-wake simulations. This study investigates the aerodynamic variability of carrier-based aircraft during landing through the turbulent air-wake generated by an aircraft carrier, employing a hybrid RANS-LES methodology on dynamic unstructured overset grids. The numerical framework integrates a delayed detached-eddy simulation (DDES) model with a parallel dynamic overset grid approach, enabling high-fidelity simulations of coupled aircraft carrier interactions. Validation confirms the accuracy of the precursor inflow method in reproducing air-wake characteristics and aerodynamic loads compared to full-domain simulations. Parametric analyses of 15 distinct landing trajectories reveal significant aerodynamic variability, particularly within 250 m of the carrier, where interactions with island-generated vortices induce fluctuations in lift (up to 25%), drag (18%), and pitching moments (30%). Ground effects near the deck further amplify load variations, while lateral deviations in landing paths generate asymmetric forces and moments. The proposed methodology demonstrates computational efficiency for multi-scenario analysis, providing critical insights into aerodynamic uncertainties during carrier operations.