Advanced Flow Control Actuators for Fuselage Drag Reduction

Virtual Aerosurface Technologies, Inc. in collaboration with Georgia Tech proposes a Phase II SBIR program for the adaptation of combustion powered actuation (COMPACT) actuators to the task of fuselage drag reduction on rotorcraft. COMPACT uses a small-scale combustion process to produce pulsed jets with a wide range of strengths and has demonstrated capability to reattach separated flows over airfoils. The Phase I program demonstrated that COMPACT is largely immune to harsh environmental conditions and is suitable for the practical rotorcraft environment. The Phase II program will focus on adapting COMPACT to a suitable test region of a helicopter fuselage where flow separation is expected. Scale models of the fuselage will be constructed and studied for both baseline and actuated flow conditions to study separation and attachment mechanisms. Actuator modules will be developed for surface mounting onto existing fuselage designs for ease of integration and actuator performance characteristics and designs will be tailored to achieve desired flow control effects. CFD analysis will be used to support the effort with modeling of both the baseline flowfield and actuator impacts. The culmination of the program will be wind tunnel test at flight speeds (~140 kts) of a full-scale fuselage with integrated actuator modules.