Enhancing UCAS Gust Rejection Capability with Active Flow Control and Real-time Surface Pressure Feedback
Abstract
A collaborative effort between the U.S. Air Force Academy and Illinois Institute of Technologywill develop and demonstrate an active flow control system for enhanced gust alleviation onUCAS aircraft. A novel approach that combines pneumatic active flow control effectors withpressure-based real-time estimates of roll and pitching moments will be explored in unsteadyflow wind tunnel and scale model flight tests. Instead of using only aircraft kinematics forfeedback to the flight controller, a sparse set of surface pressure sensors will be used to estimatethe real-time aerodynamic moments that result from stochastic gusts. The pitch and roll estimateswill be used as an inner loop feedback in a gust alleviation controller that augments theconventional flight controller. Another novel aspect of the approach will be the application ofactive flow control effectors for yaw, pitch, and roll control to compensate for the aerodynamicdisturbances. Active flow control effectors produce fundamentally different effects thanconventional control effectors that can be exploited to improve the flight performance of theaircraft, such as, nose-up pitch and proverse yaw during roll maneuvers. Comparisons of thegust alleviation capability of the new active flow control system will be made relative toconventional elevon-based control effectors to assess the overall level of performanceenhancement.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 23, 2019
- Source ID
- N000141912280
Entities
People
- David R. Williams
Organizations
- Illinois Institute of Technology
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy