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US 10,988,240 B2Granted
Thermally controlled active flow control system
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsArvin Shmilovich, Edward Andrew Whalen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus are presented. An active flow control system comprises a flow control valve, a manifold, and a temperature control system. The flow control valve is configured to control a flow of air into the manifold. The manifold is operatively connected to a number of actuators. The temperature control system is configured to heat at least a portion of the flow of air.
Claims20
An active flow control system that comprises:
- a flow control valve configured to control a flow of air into a manifold;
- the manifold operatively connected to a number of actuators such that each actuator, respectively, comprises an entry that narrows to an inlet to a trifurcated chamber that converges to an outlet that comprises a diameter that increases;
- a temperature control system that comprises a power source and resistive heater strips operatively connected to the power source, wherein the resistive heater strips are positioned in a portion of the manifold;
- and
- a controller programmed to deliver a power to the resistive heater strips that, responsive to a decrease in a mass flow rate of the air flow in the manifold, raises a temperature of an air flow entering the actuator and sustains a desired momentum in a flow of air out the outlet of the actuator.
2 more elements
A method comprising:
- controlling a flow of air into a manifold operatively connected to a number of actuators of an active flow control system;
- and
- heating at least a portion of the flow of air using a temperature control system and forming a heated portion via controlling, responsive to a decrease in a mass flow rate of the air flow in the manifold, a power to resistive heater strips and raising a temperature of an air flow entering an inlet to an actuator in the number of actuators and sustaining a desired momentum in a flow of air out an outlet of the actuator.
A method comprising:
- providing active flow control having a desired momentum using an active flow control system having a number of actuators;
- and
- decreasing a mass flow through the number of actuators while maintaining the desired momentum from the number of actuators, via heating at least a portion of a flow of air into the number of actuators via providing power to resistive heater strips positioned in a portion of a manifold of the active flow control system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.