Fluidic-Oscillator-Based Pulsed Jet Actuation on a Vertical Tail

Abstract

An industry-relevant vertical tail plane (VTP) model equipped with fluidic-oscillator-based pulsed jet actuators was tested with different active flow control (AFC) settings, rudder deflection, and sideslip angles at a chord Reynolds number of 1.3 million. In addition to pressure and force measurements, tuft visualizations and stereoscopic particle image velocimetry measurements were used to investigate AFC effects. With a total momentum coefficient of 1.5%, the control authority (lateral force) of the VTP was increased by a maximum of 34% when actuators were distributed along the rudder span. Additionally, flow control at dedicated positions on the rudder was investigated by using individual actuator segments. It was found that AFC is particularly effective at the position of the maximum load in the spanwise direction. The measurements also confirmed that local application of AFC actuators may simulate the effect of a boundary-layer fence. Finally, a comparison with existing results obtained with sweeping jet actuators shows that these two specific AFC implementations are most effective in different ranges of the momentum and the power coefficients.