Improving aircraft endurance through turbolent separation control by pulsed blowing

Boundary layer unsteady blowing is one of the most advanced solutions for reducing aircraft parasite drag and flow separation at high angles of attack. This allows high lift along with low-drag to be achieved and since endurance is one of the most important performance parameters for certain types of aircraft, such as UAVs, clearly the CL3/2/CD ratio has to be maximized. The main goal of the present investigation is to explore possible ways to obtain efficient turbulent boundary layer control, and at the same time to consider the practical problems connected to the installation of the device in a real wing. This study seeks mainly to verify the effectiveness of active control via pulsed blowing as a tool to delay boundary layer separation. Numerical simulations and wind tunnel experimental investigations on a wing model equipped with instruments are presented and the results discussed.