Water tunnel tests have been conducted to study the flow associated with fin buffet for twin-fin fighter aircraft using 1/48th scale F/A-18 models. Flow visualization made use of colored dyes to determine vortex patterns, and surface hot-film anemometry was used to study the turbulent energy and the frequencies present in the flow. Configurations tested include the full aircraft, aircraft without fins, aircraft without leading-edge-extensions, and aircraft without wings. Test Reynolds number ranged from 4300 to 12,800, with corresponding Mach numbers less than 10 to the -6th. The flow studies show that the LEX vortices burst just forward of the fins at about 25-deg angle-of-attack. Hot film anemometer signals show that fin surface turbulence increases with angle of attack, and that dominant frequencies appear in the flow when bursting occurs. The dominant frequencies correspond to a Strouhal number of about 0.7 for all speeds tested, and for all angles of attack for which vortex bursting was present.
Vortex-fin interaction on a fighter aircraft
1987-01-01
Conference paper
No indication
English
Vortex-fin interaction on a fighter aircraft
AIAA | 1987
|Fighter : a history of fighter aircraft
GWLB - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek | 1974
|Fighter : a history of fighter aircraft
SLUB | 1973
|NTIS | 1978
Training for fighter aircraft; Fighter training 2007
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2007
|