Exploration of Fluidic Thrust Vectoring Control on a Dynamic Test Rig: Computational and Experimental Analysis

Fluidic thrust vectoring (FTV) control is a cutting-edge method used to manipulate the motion of an unmanned air vehicle when traditional control surfaces like elevators are not available. The primary purpose of employing FTV is to make the aircraft less detectable. This research centers around the exploration of the co-flow variation of the FTV concept. In this approach, a secondary jet with a significant velocity is injected into the boundary layer of the primary jet. As a consequence, the primary jet is diverted, leading to the formation of a pitch moment. Numerical simulations were conducted to analyze different ratios of secondary and primary jet velocities, providing valuable insights into the effectiveness of the proposed technique. The test rig, designed with a pitch-constraint dynamic setup, utilized electric ducted fans to generate primary and secondary flows. At 19 m/s primary velocity, the experimental testing shows a maximum vertical force of 0.4 N, producing a deflection of 25°, which is deemed adequate for thrust vectoring. This research builds upon the authors’ previous work on characterizing a static co-flow FTV rig. The comparison between the computational fluid dynamics analyses and the experimental results demonstrates agreement in the behavior of the vectored jet. This validation further strengthens the findings presented in this paper.