High Performance Airfoil with Co-flow Jet Flow Control
Gecheng Zha and Craig Paxton
Problem
Significant improvements in aircraft performance can be achieved by optimizing an airfoil design. One of the important goals of the airfoil design is to achieve a compromise in airfoil topology to satisfy different operating conditions such as take-off and landing (low speed, high angle of attack) and cruising conditions (high speed, low angle of attack). Conventionally, it is achieved by varying the wing geometry, for example, by increasing the surface of the wings by means of extending the flaps during take-offs and landings. It is highly desirable to obtain an airfoil configuration that can be equally efficient for different aerodynamic conditions and have a simple mechanical design at the same time.
Solution
The aerodynamic structure of the present invention includes an airfoil having an injection slot on the suction surface of the airfoil near the leading edge, as well as a recovery slot on the suction surface of the airfoil near the trailing edge. Employing a pressurized fluid source, which may include bleed air from an engine, a high-energy fluid jet is injected near the leading edge tangentially along the suction surface of the airfoil, and substantially the same amount of mass flow is sucked in the recovery slot near the trailing edge, which can then be directed back into the circulation system of the engine to create the zero-net mass flux flow control to minimize the energy expenditure.
Competitive Advantage
The present invention provides an airfoil configuration that can be used to: 1) generate high lift without using the flap and slat system to reduce airplane weight and noise; 2) improve L/D and hence significantly reduce fuel consumption and emission pollution; 3) achieve extremely short take-off/landing (ESTOL) performance due to very high lift and low stall speed.
Applications
The invention is applicable to aircraft airfoils.
Patent Status
U.S. patent application 11/064,053 entitled, "HIGH PERFORMANCE AIRFOIL WITH CO-FLOW JET FLOW CONTROL" and a counterpart international patent application
WO2006022833 was published on March 2, 2006.
Licensing Opportunity
We are seeking a commercialization partner with capabilities in product development, sales, and marketing. An exclusive worldwide license is available.
About the Inventors
Dr. Zha, is an Associate Professor at the University of Miami (UM) since 2001. He has extensive experience on aircraft aerodynamics, flow control, wind tunnel tests, turbomachinery, propeller aerodynamics, landing gear aerodynamics, Computational Fluid Dynamics algorithm development and application, and design optimization. Dr. Zha's research at UM has been funded by AFOSR (Air Force Office of Scientific Research), NASA, ARO (Army Research Office) NRC (National Research Council), AFRL (Air Force Research Lab), and Siemens. Before Dr. Zha joined UM, he had extensive experience within the aerospace industry (GE Aircraft Engines, Pratt & Whitney) and government lab (AFRL). Dr. Zha received his Ph.D. degree from University of Montreal supported by the Quebec government FCAR award for outstanding Ph.D. students. In the spring of 2000, Dr. Zha studied at MIT as a special student in the Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Dr. Zha has published 18 journal papers, 1 book chapter, and 37 conference papers.
Mr. Craig Paxton received his Masters degree in 2005 at the University of Miami, Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Mr. Paxton currently works at Boeing Company, Huntsville, AL.
Selected References
Zha, G.-C., Bruce F. Carroll, Paxton, C., Clark A. Conley and Adam Wells, "High Performance Airfoil Using Co-Flow Jet Flow Control", AIAA Journal, Vol. 45, No. 8, pp. 2087-2090, 2007
Zha, G.-C., Gao, W. and Paxton, C. D., "Jet Effects on Co-Flow Jet Airfoil Performance", AIAA Journal, Vol.45, No.6, 2007, pp. 1222-1231
Zha, G.-C and Paxton, C. and Conley, A. and Wells, A. and Carroll, B., "Effect of Injection Slot Size on High Performance Co-Flow Jet Airfoil", AIAA Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 987-995, 2006
Zha, G.-C. and Paxton, C., "A Novel Flow Control Method for Airfoil Performance Enhancement Using Co-Flow Jet", Applications of Circulation Control Technologies, AIAA Book Series, Progress in Aeronautics and Astronautics, Vol. 214, 2006, Chapter 10, pp. 293-314, Editors: R. D. Joslin and G. S. Jones
Chen, X.-Y. and Zha, G.-C. and Yang, M.-T., "Numerical Simulation of 3-D Wing Flutter with Fully Coupled Fluid-Structural Interaction", Journal of Computers & Fluids, Vol. 36, No. 5, June 2007, pp. 856-867
Chen, X. and Zha, G.-C., "Implicit Application of Non-Reflective Boundary Conditions for Navier-Stokes Equations in Generalized Coordinates", International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids, Vol. 50, No. 7, pp. 767-793, 2006
Chen, X. and Zha, G.-C., "Fully Coupled Fluid-Structural Interactions Using an Efficient High Solution Upwind Scheme", Journal of Fluid and Structure, Vol. 20, No. 8, Nov. 2005, pp. 1105-1125
Zha, G.-C., "A Low Diffusion Efficient Upwind Scheme", AIAA Journal, Vol.43, No.5, pp. 1137-1140, 2005
Hu, Z. and Zha, G.-C., "Calculations of 3D Compressible Using an Efficient Low Diffusion Upwind Scheme", International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids, Vol. 47, pp. 253-269, Nov. 2004
Zha, G.-C., "Boundary Layer Loss Mechanism and Justification of Wall Functions for Turbulence Modeling", AIAA Journal, Vol. 42, No. 11, Nov. 2004, pp. 2387-2390
Zha, G.-C. and Hu, Z., "Calculation of Transonic Internal Flows Using an Efficient High Resolution Upwind Scheme", AIAA Journal, Jan. 2004
