Experimental Investigation of Air Jets for the Control of Compressible Dynamic Stall

The experimental investigation of constant blowing air jets as fluidic control devices for helicopter dynamic stall control is described. A carbon fiber airfoil of constant OA209 cross section was fitted with a pneumatic system to deliver dry compressed air as jets for flow control at total pressures of up to 10 bar. The experiment used porthole jets of radius 1% chord, positioned at 10% chord and with spacing 6.7% chord. The positive dynamic stall control effects were demonstrated at Mach 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 for deep dynamic stall test cases with the best test cases reducing the pitching moment peak after the main stall by 83% while increasing the mean lift over one pitching cycle by 30%. The conclusions from the experiments are supported by three-dimensional unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) computations of the pitching airfoil with flow control using the DLR-TAU code.