Apparatus and method for the control of trailing wake flows
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsArvin Shmilovich, Yoram Yadlin, Roger Clark, Donald Leopold
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for dissipating vortices that form at the wingtips on aircraft and from other airfoils. A jet air stream is discharged in a location at or proximate to the outer end portion of the airfoil into the vortex flow, and the jet air stream is moved cyclically back and forth. The cyclic movement can be at lower or higher frequencies to alleviate at least in part intensity of the vortex or accelerate instability of the vortex which leads to vortex dissipation.
Claims50
An airfoil vortex dissipating system comprising:
- an airfoil having a leading edge, a trailing edge, and an outer end portion;
- and
- at least one nozzle positioned at, or proximate to, the outer end portion of the airfoil, wherein a characteristic of the at least one nozzle cyclically changes during operation to discharge a jet air stream in a plurality of different discharge directions, wherein the characteristic changes at a cyclic frequency sufficient to substantially dissipate a vortex generated by the airfoil.
A method of dissipating a vortex which is generated by an airfoil on a fixed wing aircraft, the airfoil having a leading edge, a trailing edge, and an outer end portion, the method comprising:
- at least partially dissipating the vortex generated by the airfoil by cyclically changing a characteristic of a jet air stream between a first state and a second state in a time-dependent manner, with the characteristic changing in a continuous manner between temporally adjacent states, the jet air stream being directed from at least one nozzle located at least proximate to the outer end portion of the airfoil.
An airfoil vortex dissipating system comprising:
- an airfoil having a leading edge, a trailing edge, and an outer end portion;
- at least one nozzle located at, or proximate to, the outer end portion of the airfoil, wherein a characteristic of the at least one nozzle cyclically changes during operation to discharge a jet air stream in a plurality of discharge directions, and wherein the characteristic chances at a cyclic frequency sufficient to substantially dissipate a vortex generated by the airfoil;
- and
- a pressurized air inlet section positioned to supply pressurized air to the at least one nozzle.
A method of dissipating a vortex which is generated by an airfoil, the airfoil having a leading edge, a trailing edge, and an outer end portion, the method comprising:
- discharging a jet air stream from at least one nozzle into the vortex;
- and
- at least substantially dissipating the vortex by cyclically changing a characteristic of the jet air stream to direct at least a portion of the jet air stream in a plurality of discharge directions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.