Quasi-Steady Effective Angle of Attack and Its Use in Lift-Equivalent Motion Design

What is it about?

This manuscript derives a new expression for effective angle of attack that relaxes the small-angle and small-camber-slope assumptions. The new expression includes effects from pitching, plunging, and surging motions, as well as spatial nonuniformity of the flow. The proposed expression is useful for researchers seeking to compare disparate aerodynamic scenarios that may include kinematic effects and flow-field nonuniformity. We also provide a framework that uses the proposed expression for lift-equivalent motion design. The motion design framework is used to derive motion inputs for a maneuvering airfoil to emulate the effective angle of attack of a non-maneuvering airfoil encountering a transverse gust. Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations support the use of the proposed effective angle of attack expression for lift-equivalent motion design, subject to an attached-flow assumption.

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