Drag reduction experiments on a wing at incidence angles appropriate to combined tilt-rotor & tilt-wing configurations in hover

E. Phillips, L. Taubert, G. Kay, J. Chen, H. B. Kalyankar, I. Wygnanski

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

The rotor slip stream on a hovering tilt rotor airplane impinges on the wing at large negative incidence angles resulting in heavy drag penalty referred to as download. Thus, wind tunnel tests were carried out in order to reduce this download by tilting the wing in conjunction with deflected flaps equipped with Active Flow Control (AFC) devices. Sweeping jet actuators located near the flap hinge were used in these tests and their aggregate momentum output was varied between 0%<Cμ<3%. The lowest download was obtained when the wing was tilted by 30o-40o relative to the airplane's longitudinal axis with the tilt of rotors complimenting the wing-tilt to a total of the 90o required for hover. The current tests suggested that a combined tilt-wing tilt-rotor configuration is more effective in hover than a pure tilt rotor. When these ideas were applied to a complete powered model with a simple flapped wing tilted at 30o to the longitudinal axis, the measured download was reduced by 60% relative to an identical tilt rotor model without AFC.

Original languageEnglish
Pages543-560
Number of pages18
StatePublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes
Event60th Israel Annual Conference on Aerospace Sciences, IACAS 2020 - Tel Aviv and Haifa, Israel
Duration: 4 Mar 20205 Mar 2020

Conference

Conference60th Israel Annual Conference on Aerospace Sciences, IACAS 2020
Country/TerritoryIsrael
CityTel Aviv and Haifa
Period4/03/205/03/20

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