Turbulent Drag Reduction Using Sub-Acoustic Shell Modes

A versatile, low profile actuator for incrasing aircraft performance by decreasing frictional drag is proposed. The concept dcan completely internal to the aircraft, and requires no pats, orifices, or strutures extending into the flow field which may become fouled. The Phase I effort consists of a wind tunnel experiment to determine the range of operability of the actuator. An interim effort is also proposed which would help quantify the actuator's performance, prior to a performance validation experiment under simulation flight conditions in Phase II.