Research>Flow Control

What is Flow Control?
Successful flow control may be defined as the achievement of making a flow behave in a way that it would not ordinarily do so by the application of a minimum amount of energy or effort

The first 100 years of aerodynamic design was all about optimisation of geometry in response to understanding the physics of how fluids behave. Given that there are now diminishing returns in further geometric optimisation of aerodynamic shapes, flow control technology offers the designer a means of modifying the interaction between a surface and the flow over it. The Holy Grail of flow control is active reduction of turbulent skin friction drag. A more achievable aim in the near term is relaxation of existing aerodynamic design constraints such that there is an incremental improvement in overall system optimality.

Presentations

Overview of Flow Control research at the Goldstein Aeronautical Laboratory, Barton, March 2006

Flow control research topics

• Manoeuvre effectors
• Sensors and actuators
• Separation control
• Aeroacoustics

Image by Andrew Crook