Numerical simulation of micro-jet flow control parameters for flying-wing UAV

The control effectiveness of typical micro-jet flow control parameters on the aerodynamic performance of the flying-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is investigated by numerical simulation. Validation is conducted with TAU0015 airfoil experimental data for flow control model and numerical method. The flow control model is tested with eight arrays of synthetic jet actuators embedded in the leading edge and 1%c along the wing span. The change in the control effect is examined and the control efficiency of control parameters is performed. The numerical results of the UAV aerodynamic coefficients reveal lift coefficient increments over the baseline uncontrolled case as large as 25%. The actuators arranged in leading edge and inboard of UAV are found to be more effective at separation control, the larger jet momentum coefficient are more pronounced and the most effective jet frequency seemed to be one, which indicate that correct control parameter is critical to the design of an efficient flow separation control scheme.