Rolling moment response of a wing-body to stagnation point actuation

Vehicles at high angle of attack experience unwanted lateral moments due to asymmetry of the forebody vortices. In order to extend the flight envelope of high performance aircraft, it is necessary to understand and control these moments. This thesis explores the use of a stagnation point actuator (SPA) to achieve desired lateral moments from forebody vortex control. The SPA is a miniature movable nosetip that rotates in the yaw plane. It creates a geometric microasymmetry which biases the growth of the stagnation region boundary layer and hence controls the origin of the forebody vortices.;The control effectiveness of the SPA and the flow mechanisms which create the lateral forces and moments were studied on a delta wing-body of revolution model of aspect ratio 2.0. Flow visualization proved the effectiveness of the SPA in static and dynamic control of forebody vortex asymmetry for angles of attack from 20;Frequency domain analysis shows that the asymmetry in the flowfield is causally and linearly related to stagnation point displacement. The lateral pressure difference is a high fidelity metric of asymmetry, with a time lag substantially higher than that explained by freestream convection. Though complex, the rolling moment response is piece-wise linear within families of angle of attack and bank angle. The system response is successfully simulated by a two-time-scale model, including a time lag and a first order decay, with empirical gains. The free-roll response is adequately modeled by a second-order linear system which succeeds in explaining the observed wing rock. Results indicate that the SPA effectiveness in dynamic roll control is substantially higher than in roll-constrained tests.