It has been widely anticipated that thrust vectoring could be an effective method of providing sufficient levels of stability and control for highly manoeuvrable and flexible Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs). The present project aims to understand the interactions of delta wing vortical flows and thrust vectoring, with an emphasis on unsteady aspects. Food-colouring dye flow visualization, Laser-induced fluorescent flow visualization, Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and force measurements were conducted in the water and wind tunnels over a range of dimensionless frequencies and jet momentum coefficients. Both slender and nonslender wings were tested with the purpose of understanding the effect of sweep angle on the aerodynamics-propulsion interaction. The interaction of statically pitched trailing-edge jets with leading-edge vortices over stationary delta wings was studied. It was found that under-vortex blowing with rectangular nozzle at stall and post-stall regimes could yield the maximum effectiveness of trailing-edge blowing, due to the promotion of earlier reattachment and delay of vortex breakdown. The effect of nozzle geometry can be important, because the entrainment effect of the jet depends on it. Studies of the flow field reveal strong jet-vortex interactions, distortion of jet vortices, and merging of wing and jet vortices. The dynamic responses of wing vortical flows to dynamic trailing-edge blowing exhibit hysteresis and phase lag, which increases with the increasing dimensionless frequency of jet momentum. Time delay for the decelerating jet is significantly larger than that for the accelerating jet. Sweep angle has no significant influence on the effect of unsteady trailing-edge blowing. From a design aspect, hysteresis and time delay need to be considered for the flight control systems.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: Vortex; unsteady flow; circulation; three-dimensional flow; aerodynamics; instantaneous lift. Includes bibliographical references (p. 182-188).

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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Glasgow, 2002. / Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Glasgow, 2002. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

Thesis (M.S. in Mechanical Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Chandrasekhara, M. S. "June 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on July 10, 2009. Author(s) subject terms: Unsteady Aerodynamics, UCAV Maneuvers, 2D-unsteady flows. Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-44). Also available in print.

A robust technique for performing numerical simulations of nonlinear unsteady aeroelastic behavior is developed. The technique is applied to long-span bridges and the wing of a modern business jet. The heart of the procedure is combining the aerodynamic and structural models. The aerodynamic model is a general unsteady vortex-lattice method. The structural model for the bridges is a rigid roadbed supported by linear and torsional springs. For the aircraft wing, the structural model is a cantilever beam with rigid masses attached at various positions along the span; it was generated with the NASTRAN program. The structure, flowing air, and control devices are considered to be the elements of a single dynamic system. All the governing equations are integrated simultaneously and interactively in the time domain; a predictor-corrector method was adapted to perform this integration. For long-span bridges, the simulation predicts the onset of flutter accurately, and the numerical results strongly suggest that an actively controlled wing attached below the roadbed can easily suppress the wind-excited oscillations. The governing equations for a proposed passive system were developed. The wing structure is modelled with finite elements. The deflections are expressed as an expansion in terms of the free-vibration modes. The time-dependent coefficients are the generalized coordinates of the entire dynamic system. The concept of virtual work was extended to develop a method to transfer the aerodynamic loads to the structural nodes. Depending on the speed of the aircraft, the numerical results show damped responses to initial disturbances (although there are no viscous terms in either the aerodynamic or structural model), merging of modal frequencies, the development of limit-cycle oscillations, and the occurrence of a supercritical Hopf bifurcation leading to motion on a torus. / Ph. D.

published_or_final_version / Civil Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy