Fluidics Jet Vectoring for Incompressible Flow by Using Counter Flow Method for Circular Duct

Abstract

Computational and experimental investigation of fluidic thrust vectoring using counter-flow method had been carried out in the present work. The experimental investigation involved the design and construction of a test rig for a circular duct to examine the effect of various geometric variables on the thrust vectoring angle. The experimental tests covered Coanda surface radius R/d = (0.58823, 1.17647, 1.75471), secondary gap height h/d = (0.02941, 0.05882), over a secondary mass flow ratio range (0 ≤ m ̇S/m ̇p ≤ 0.06568). Load cell readings were obtained using two components overhead. The computational investigation involved a 3D numerical solution using ANSYS Fluent. The test cases parameters used in the experimental work were used as an input for the numerical solution. The results show that the thrust vectoring angle is increased by increasing the secondary suction rate. Three control zones can be observed: a “dead zone” can be seen at low mass flow ratios. Followed by a control region where continuous primary jet control is achievable until a saturation region is reached. The coanda surface ratio determines the length of the dead zone in which small coanda surface resulted in an extended dead zone region. The secondary gap height increase had an inverse effect on the thrust vectoring angle. The investigation shows that both experimental and computational results obtained followed a similar general pattern and gave a good agreement when compared with available studies on jet vectoring angle.