Prediction and Control of Twin-Tail Buffet of Fighter Aircraft

The Phase I work has clearly demonstrated the feasibility of the Multi-Disciplinary Computing Environment (MDICE) for prediction and control of twin-tail buffet of fighter aircraft. Several flow control methodologies have been proposed and appliedsuccessfully to a generic fighter aircraft to reduce the twin-tail buffet responses. A new method of flow control using normal leading-edge blowing has been devised in Phase I and it has produced the most favorable results. The goal of Phase II study isto develop and validate a computational analysis capability for the control of buffet responses of modern fighter aircraft. Due to the availability of flight and experimental data through our collaborators from Boeing and NASA LaRC, the F/A-18 fullaircraft will be used as the test bed for Phase II work. A comprehensive parametric study of flow control effects on the buffet responses will be carried out. Active smart-structure control using Piezoelectric actuators will also be investigated.Eventually, the combined effects of flow control and active structure control will be investigated. The structure dynamics module will be upgraded to three-dimensional nonlinear finite-element module in order to model the piezoelectric actuators. Theproposed Phase II effort will result in a state-of-the-art multi-disciplinary design methodology to control buffet responses of a new generation of fighter aircraft.