Design and Analysis of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Propulsion System with Fluidic Flow Control Inside a Highly Compact Serpentine Inlet Duct

Abstract

The benefits of highly compact serpentine inlet ducts extend from reductions in overall aircraft weight to higher survivability, as well as allow the aircraft designer greater flexibility in propulsion system integration. Unfortunately, due to the extreme wall curvature, these ducts result in significant flow distortion and total pressure losses at the engine face. It has been shown that active flow control in the form of micro-fluidic vortex generators significantly helps to reduce these losses. To date, these systems have only been tested in a laboratory setting in which items such as flow control air supply, system and subsystem size, weight, and location are not major factors. Subscale unmanned aerial vehicles provide a real world test bed to help overcome these constraints at a lower cost and lower risk as compared to full scale aircraft testing. This work presents the design, integration, testing, and analysis of an unmanned aerial vehicle's propulsion system that implements fluidic flow control inside a highly compact serpentine inlet duct in order to reduce engine face distortion and increase propulsion system performance.