The present study describes the fundamentals of droop nose design for improving the aerodynamics of airfoils with active high-lift using an internally blown Coanda-type flap. The main objectives are to increase the stall angle of attack and reduce the power required by the high-lift system. A two-dimensional sensitivity analysis explores the effects of varying airfoil camber and thickness in the first 20% of the chord. The resulting droop nose configuration improves the maximum lift coefficient by about 20% and increases the stall angle of attack by around 10-15 deg. A target lift coefficient of about 4.7 is reached with 28% less jet momentum coefficient, compared to the clean nose. As the modified leading-edge geometry presents different stall mechanisms, the aerodynamic response to variations of jet momentum is also different. In particular, for a jet momentum coefficient above 0.035, the stall angle of attack increases with jet momentum, in contrast with the behavior observed with the clean nose.

The general picture of research in active flow control for aircraft applications has been continuously changing over the last 20 years. Researchers can now obtain design sensitivities by using numerical flow simulations, and new optical experimental methods can be used that measure flow field data non-intrusively in planes and volumes. These methodological advances enabled significant knowledge increase. The present paper reviews recent progress in active flow control by steady blowing. It appears that two strategies of blowing deserve particular attention. The first uses tangential blowing of thin wall jets to overcome the adverse pressure gradients from locally very large flow turning rates. This approach exploits the potentials of the Coanda effect. The second strategy employs oblique blowing of air jets designed to generate longitudinal vortices in the boundary layer. The longitudinal vortices provide convective redistribution of momentum in the boundary layer, and they also enhance turbulent momentum transport. The sensitivities of these two approaches as observed in fundamental flow investigations and in applications to high-lift aerofoils are described and suited efficiency parameters of blowing are analysed.

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We propose a hierarchy of low-dimensional proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) models for the transient and post-transient flow around a high-lift airfoil with unsteady Coanda blowing over the trailing edge. The modal expansion comprises actuation modes as a lifting method for wall actuation following Graham et al. (Intl J. Numer. Meth. Engng, vol. 44 (7), 1999, pp. 945–972) and Kasnakoğlu et al. (Intl J. Control, vol. 81 (9), 2008, pp. 1475–1492). A novel element is separate actuation modes for different frequencies. The structure of the dynamic model rests on a Galerkin projection using the Navier–Stokes equations, simplifying mean-field considerations, and a stochastic term representing the background turbulence. The model parameters are identified with a data assimilation (4D-Var) method. We propose a model hierarchy from a linear oscillator explaining the suppression of vortex shedding by blowing to a fully nonlinear model resolving unactuated and actuated transients with steady and high-frequency modulation of blowing. The models’ accuracy is assessed through the mode amplitudes and an estimator for the lift coefficient. The robustness of the model is physically justified, and then observed for the training and the validation dataset.