A Novel Reverse Hinge Spoiler for Flight Loads Control

Abstract

This paper presents the reverse hinge spoiler, a novel spoiler concept, for flight load control. The reverse hinge spoiler is a control surface mounted on the upper surface of the wing. Unlike conventional hinged spoilers that are hinged at their front and rotate forward toward the leading edge of the wing, the proposed spoiler concept is hinged at its rear and rotates backward toward the trailing edge of the wing. The aerodynamic performance of the proposed spoiler is compared and contrasted with that of a conventional hinged spoiler for different flight conditions and hinge locations using the two-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) with the k-omega SST turbulence model-based computational fluid dynamic solver. The results show that the proposed spoiler results in a larger increase in drag and a sharper reduction in the lift for a wide range of spoiler angles and flight conditions. Reversing the spoiler is found to cause a higher adverse pressure gradient in front of the spoiler compared to a conventional spoiler, as it ‘traps’ more flow, thereby increasing drag and reducing lift.