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US 8,074,938 B2Granted
Active control of a body by altering surface drag
AssigneeThe Invention Science Fund I, LLC
InventorsRoderick A. Hyde, Nathan P. Myhrvold, Lowell L. Wood, Jr., Alistair K. Chan, Clarence T. Tegreene
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Abstract
A system and method is described generally for deforming a first surface of a body and deforming a second surface of a body to alter a fluid flow in order to change the characteristics of the fluid flow about the body and thereby control the fluid dynamic forces on the body.
Claims19
A method of altering fluid flow about a body moving relative to a fluid, comprising:
- providing the body in a fluid, the body having a first surface exposed to the fluid and a second surface exposed to the fluid;
- providing a first set of actuators associated with the first surface;
- providing a second set of actuators associated with the second surface;
- generating at least one first surface wave on the first surface of the body by actuating at least some of the first set of actuators, the at least one first surface wave propagating in a direction tangential to the first surface and at a first non-zero angle with the velocity vector of the body;
- and
- generating at least one second surface wave on the second surface of the body by actuating at least some of the second set of actuators, the at least one second surface wave propagating in a direction tangential to the second surface and at a second non-zero angle with the velocity vector of the body, the first angle being different than the second angle.
3 more elements
A method of altering fluid flow about a body, comprising:
- providing a body having a first surface and a second surface the first surface and the second surface separately actuatable by more than one actuators;
- providing the first surface in the presence of a fluid flow;
- providing the second surface in the presence of a fluid flow;
- providing at least one first actuator capable of deforming the first surface in the form of a first surface wave propagating in a direction nonparallel to the velocity vector of the body relative to the fluid flow and tangentially parallel to the surface of the body;
- providing at least one second actuator capable of deforming the second surface in the form of a second surface wave propagating in a direction nonparallel to the velocity vector of the body relative to the fluid flow, and tangentially parallel to the surface of the body, and the second surface wave propagating in a different direction than the first surface wave;
- detecting at least one state of the body based on at least one signal from at least one sensor;
- communicating the signal to a processor;
- and
- controlling the at least one first actuator and the at least one second actuator based on the at least one signal to control fluid dynamic forces on the body.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.