Control of Flow Structure on a Semi-Circular Planform Wing

Active flow control is used to modify the lift, drag and pitching moments on a semicircular wing with aspect ratio, AR = 2, and chord Reynolds number is 68,000. The wing is mounted on a pitch/plunge sting mechanism that responds to the instantaneous loads and moments acting on the wing. The leading edge of the airfoil contains 16 spatially localized actuators that can be independently controlled. Smoke wire visualization, surface pressure and six-component force balance measurements are used to characterize the effects of openloop forcing. The lift coefficients on the steady wing are enhanced with the actuation, similar to the effect of dynamic stall vortex lift enhancement that occurs during a pitch up maneuver. Surface pressure measurements are being used to construct a flow model for use in feedback control. Progress toward the goal of designing a feedback controller to stabilize the flight of the model in an oscillatory freestream is discussed.