SBIR Phase I: Novel Circulation Control for Electric Aircraft

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛/商业影响将是加速采用电动飞行。目前，小型电动飞机的航程和有效载荷有限，这使得它们在大多数航线上都不经济可行。更远距离的飞行需要更高的空气动力效率。正在开发的循环控制技术仅在需要时(起飞和降落)才产生极高的升力，但与其他旨在实现相同效果的基于推进的方法不同，它成本低，允许机翼更小、更高效，在需要飞行距离的巡航部分没有任何质量或性能缺陷。更快地采用电动飞机将加强美国在这一新兴领域的领导地位，促进美国5000个小型支线机场的使用，实现变革性、安静、便捷的电动空中交通，并成为美国服务不足地区的一个新的经济增长领域。此外，脱碳是航空业的一项紧迫挑战，该行业是最不能带电的行业之一。必须采用激进的新的空气动力学方法和结构，例如那些拟议的技术将使之能够达到真正的净零未来航空运输。该项目涉及用于电动飞机机翼产生极高升力的新型气动循环控制的研究和开发。这项技术在襟翼等操纵面上引入了一股高能量的狭窄气流，允许更大的偏转，并有可能使机翼在起飞和着陆时的升力增加两倍。此前，基于内燃机和复杂管道的早期概念，业界认为商业应用风险太高、成本太高，这一创新简化了物理实施，直到现在才能用最新的电动飞机架构实现。该项目开发了高保真计算流体力学模拟和物理空气动力学测试相结合的方法，以揭示必须产生的基本湍流特性，以确保能够可靠地实现最大机翼升力系数4至5，特别是在非设计条件下。详细的绩效建模将建立现有绩效与改进绩效的基准，以包括循环控制，然后将这些数据应用于可以成为新的行业标准的全新类型的最高效率机翼。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be the accelerated adoption of electric flight. Currently, the limited range and payloads of small electric aircraft make them economically unviable on most routes. Increased aerodynamic efficiency is required for longer range. The circulation control technology being developed generates extremely high lift only when needed (takeoff and landing), but unlike other propulsion-based approaches aimed at the same effect, it is low cost and allows for a smaller and more efficient wing without any mass or performance drawbacks for the cruise portion of flight where range is needed. More rapid adoption of electric aircraft will enhance US leadership in this nascent field, facilitate the use of the country’s 5000 small, regional airports for transformative, quiet, accessible, electric air mobility, and become a new area of economic growth in underserved parts of the country. Moreover, decarbonization is an urgent challenge in aviation, with the industry being among the least able to electrify. Radical new aerodynamic approaches and configurations must be adopted, such as those which the proposed technology will enable, to reach a true net zero future for air transportation. This project involves research and development of novel aerodynamic circulation control applied to the wings of electric planes to generate extremely high lift. The technology introduces a high-energy narrow jet of air over control surfaces like flaps, allowing for much higher deflections and potentially tripling the lift of a wing at takeoff and landing. Previously deemed too risky and expensive for commercial application by industry based on earlier concepts fueled by combustion engines and complex plumbing, this innovation simplifies the physical implementation in a way that is only now possible with the latest electric aircraft architectures. This project develops a combination of high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics simulations and physical aerodynamic testing to uncover the fundamental turbulent flow characteristics that must be produced to ensure that maximum wing lift coefficients of 4 to 5 can be achieved reliably, particularly in off-design conditions. Detailed performance modeling will establish benchmarks of existing vs. modified performance to include circulation control and then apply this data to an entirely new type of maximum efficiency wing that can become a new industry standard.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.