Surface plasma discharge for controlling forebody vortex asymmetry

摘要

The present invention provides a system and method for rapidly and precisely controlling vortex symmetry or asymmetry on aircraft forebodies to avoid yaw departure or provide supplemental lateral control beyond that available from the vertical tail surfaces with much less power, obtrusion, weight and mechanical complexity than current techniques. This is accomplished with a plasma discharge to manipulate the boundary layer and the angular locations of its separation points in cross flow planes to control the symmetry or asymmetry of the vortex pattern. Pressure data is fed to a PID controller to calculate and drive voltage inputs to the plasma discharge elements, which provide the volumetric heating of the boundary layer on a time scale necessary to adapt to changing flight conditions and control the symmetry or asymmetry of the pressures and vortices. In the case of yaw departure avoidance, the PID controller controls the plasma to adjust the separation points to angular locations around the forebody that provide a robustly stable symmetric vortex pattern on a time scale that the asymmetries develop. In the case of lateral control, the PID controller controls the plasma to adjust the separation points to angular locations around the forebody that provide an asymmetric vortex pattern that produces the desired supplementary lateral force and rolling moment.