Plasma Gurney Flap Flight Control at Low Angle of Attack

A flight control concept without movable surfaces using electrofluidic actuators is assessed from low-speed scaled two-dimensional (2-D) rectangular wings up to three-dimensional (3-D) full-scale tapered swept wings at realistic aircraft operating conditions. The plasma Gurney flap concept consists of placing spanwise dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuators on both sides of a wing or empennage near the trailing edge, and pointing in opposite directions, to change the flow curvature in this region, thus altering lift. Low-speed wind-tunnel tests and corresponding computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are first carried out for this concept on scaled 2-D rectangular wings. Measured lift moment and flow streamlines are used to validate the simulation (CFD) tool. Simulations with this tool are then performed to assess the effect of wing taper and sweep on the effectiveness of the concept at low speed and to evaluate the concept for full-scale 3-D tapered swept-wing geometries for a single-aisle airliner. The results indicate that the plasma Gurney flap has better performance on tapered and swept wings relative to rectangular wings because of the reduction in the velocity component normal to the plasma actuator. Moreover, the presence of shocks at cruise flight conditions improves the effectiveness of the plasma Gurney flap concept.