Experimental and Numerical Studies of Flow and Noise Control of Aerofoils using Morphing Structures

Experimental and numerical studies to characterize aerodynamic and eroacoustic performance of simple and multi-element aerofoils using morphing structures
are conducted and some preliminary results are presented here. For the simple aerofoil, a NACA 0012 aerofoil with morphing trailing-edge with deflection
angle β = 10◦ for a chord-based Reynolds number of Rec = 2.6 × 105 has been reported for two different morphing trailing-edge designs. Comprehensive flow field investigations including lift and drag forces measurements, wake profiles using hot-wire, pressure distribution along the chord and aerofoil noise emission are carried out. LES studies have been performed to further investigate the flow behaviours around aerofoils and good agreement between the experimental results and that from LES is found. For multi-element aerofoil, a parametric experimental study of MDA 30P30N multi-element aerofoil has been carried out to investigate the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic effects and efficiency of morphing structures. The study involved the use of slat cove fillers, flap cove fillers, Droopnose configuration and slat cusp serrations. Static
surface pressure measurements, unsteady surface pressure measurements using microphones and flow visualisation using particle image velocimetry (PIV)
has been carried out. Results confirmed the great potential of the morphing structures, which is one of the highly sought candidate for the next generation
aircraft control surfaces.