Suction and pulsed blowing for control of local wing-engine-slat-cut out flow separation: The INAFLOWT Project

An experimental study on the application of active flow control (AFC) to a 1:8.4 scale model of a swept wing in a landing configuration was conducted. The wing is fitted with an Ultra High Bypass Ratio (UHBR) engine nacelle. The highly efficient UHBR engines characterized by a large diameter that interferes with the flow around the wing, degrading its performance. An innovative active flow control device, creating steady suction and pulsed blowing (PB), was installed in the leading-edge region of the wing, above the nacelle, and its performance was experimentally evaluated. The effects of the suction and PB mechanisms were examined individually and simultaneously, using relevant normalized parameters to pave the way to a full-scale wind tunnel test. It was shown that the AFC devices increase the lift by up to 3%, redirected the flow to the desired down-stream direction and reduced the size of the separation zone created due to the implementation of the UHBR nacelle.  The next step is validating the small-scale results of this study in full-scale wind tunnel tests that hopefully make the technology flight test ready.