posted on Jul, 15 2008 @ 11:20 AM
AFRL is laying the groundwork to develop revolutionary hypersonic aerospace vehicles. Researchers are examining the feasibility of replacing
traditional mechanical actuators, which move like wing flaps to control an air vehicle’s flight control surfaces, with plasma actuators that require
no moving parts and are more reliable.
As part of the Boundary Layers and Hypersonics program, AFRL conducted a wind tunnel test to evaluate the feasibility of using plasma actuators for
airframe flight control. In AFRL’s Mach 5 Plasma Channel wind tunnel, engineers used a strong electric field to ionize air around an air vehicle
model to create plasma. The plasma-heated air successfully exerted force on the model and demonstrated that the plasma actuator concept is a viable
area for further study and development. The program focuses on characterizing, predicting, and controlling high-speed fluid dynamic phenomena,
including boundary layer transition; shock/boundary layer and shock/shock interactions; and other airframe propulsion integration phenomena such as
real-gas effects, plasma aerodynamics, magneto-hydrodynamics, and high-speed flow heat transfer. (Mr. R. Kimmel, AFRL/VAAA, (937) 656-7868)
www.wpafb.af.mil...
www.wpafb.af.mil...
[edit on 15-7-2008 by careface]
[edit on 15-7-2008 by careface]