Dynamic manipulation of asymmetric forebody vortices to achieve linear control

A wind tunnel experiment was performed to further investigate the potential of the dynamic manipulation of forebody vortices as a means of supplementing directional control of fighter aircraft at high angles of attack. Tests were conducted on a 65-deg delta-wing model fitted with a slender, pointed tangent-ogive forebody of circular cross-section and 12.8 deg semi-apex angle. Forward-blowing nozzles located near the apex of the forebody served as the means of manipulating the forebody vortices. As expected, forward blowing was very effective, i.e., little blowing effort was required to cause the forebody vortex on the blown side to assume the 'high' position. However, the magnitudes of yawing moment and side force developed by the slender forebody with blowing do not differ significantly from that of the no-blowing, baseline case. Moreover, blowing above a certain threshold value produced an unexpected reversal, with blowing causing the vortex on the blown side to assume the 'low' position instead and the yawing moment and side force to change sense. The results have shown that the dynamic manipulation scheme is very successful in producing a linear variation of time-average yawing moment with a duty-cycle parameter, even with sideslip, for the aircraft-like model. The results also show that, by switching the vortex pattern rapidly, the linearity can be maintained up to a reduced frequency of at least 0.32, which is expected to be very satisfactory for practical applications.; A subsequent water tunnel experiment with the forebody alone was undertaken to conduct off-surface flow visualizations that confirmed the vortex reversal phenomenon. Based on the flow visualization studies, a hypothesis was formed regarding the cause of the reversal phenomenon; it postulates that at the reversal threshold the nozzle flux interrupts the formation of the high forebody vortex on the blowing side and encourages the shear layer to form a replacement vortex that lies close to the forebody. The findings in the water tunnel also suggest that the 'stacked' arrangement of the vortices for a slender forebody may be responsible for the finding that yawing moment and side force with blowing are no greater than the baseline magnitudes.; The research indicates that the dynamic manipulation scheme using forward blowing, either below or above the reversal threshold, is a viable and attractive means of obtaining linear yaw control of an aircraft-like configuration. Considerably more test data are still required, however, to better define the design space and to reduce technical risk. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...