Diagnostics for Wind Tunnel Dynamic Flight Maneuvering Using Controlled, Trapped Vorticity

Abstract : This equipment will be used for detailed, time resolved flow field diagnostics in a number of AFOSR sponsored an other DOD sponsored investigations of active aerodynamic flow control. The near tenn use of this equipment will concentrate on two degrees of freedom dynamic maneuvering of a wing model in wind tunnel testing to support the experimental effort of a five year AFOSR MURI Program that began in July 2005 and includes the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois, the University of Texas, Austin and the California Institute of Technology. The MURI Program focuses on closed-loop flow control to achieve dynamic maneuvering and attitude control for small scale UAVs. Adaptive, closed-loop feedback control architectures will be designed based on a low-order model of the vorticity dynamics. Flow-field data is provided from surface-mounted pressure sensors (that will be augmented with and micro-fabricated tufts), and the required net forces and moments are supplied by sparse arrays of independent hybrid fluidic actuators managing the generation, accumulation (trapping), and regulation of spanwise and streamwise vorticity concentrations on the lifting surfaces . High-order detached eddy simulations will address questions of actuator and sensor placement, assess the accuracy of low - order models, and serve as a computational testbed for controller development.