A theory of the jet flap in three dimensions

Abstract

The treatment of two-dimensional jet-flapped wings in incompressible flow by the methods of thin-aerofoil theory given by one of the authors (Spence 1956) has been extended to the case of a thin wing of finite aspect ratio which possesses a deflected jet sheet of zero thickness emerging with a small angular deflexion at its trailing edge. The restriction is imposed that the streamlines of the jet flow lie in planes perpendicular to the wing-span, transverse momentum-transport being thus excluded. As in classical theories, the downwash field is assumed to arise from elementary horseshoe vortices proportional in strength to the local lift distribution; a new feature is the ability of the sheet formed by these elements to sustain a pressure difference on account of the longitudinal flux of momentum of the jet within it. The induced downwash w i ( x, y ) in the plane z = 0 at intermediate distances x from the wing cannot be calculated, and is therefore replaced by an interpolation formula having the correct values U ∞ α i at the wing and U ∞ α i ∞ far downstream. To ensure that the errors so introduced are small the aspect ratio A must be large, its permissible minimum increasing with the jet momentum coefficient C J . Two methods of interpolating to w i ( x, y ), both of which lead within close limits to the same expression for C L , are discussed. They are chosen so as to allow the two-dimensional equation for loading, whose solution is known, to be used to calculate the loading in a streamwise section in three dimensions. The spanwise variation of loading could be calculated for arbitrary planforms and jet-momentum distributions, but the present paper is confined to the case in which the loading and downwash distribution depend only on x/c , where x measures distance from the leading edge and c ( y ) is the local chord. This is shown to require both c and the jet-momentum flux per unit span to be elliptically distributed, the deflexion τ and incidence a being constant over the span. The relation between the coefficients of induced drag and lift is then C D i = C (2) L /( πA + 2 C J ) induced drag being defined as the difference between the thrust and the (constant) flux of momentum in the jet. (The interpolations for induced downwash are not used in deriving this relation.) The ratio of C L to the value C (2) L which it would have in two dimensions is C L / C (2) L = { A + (2/π) C J } / { A + 2/π ) (∂ C (2) L /∂α) - 2(1+ σ)}, where ∂ C (2) L /∂α is the two-dimensional derivative of lift with respect to incidence, a known function of C J and σ = 1 — α i /(½ α i ∞ ). An expression for σ is found in terms of known quantities by equating the induced drag calculated from the detailed forces on the wing to that given above. The results have been compared with experimental measurements made on an 8:1 elliptic cylinder of rectangular planform at aspect ratios 2⋅75, 6⋅8 and infinity. Remarkably close agreement with observed values of C L is obtained in all cases, and the difference C D — C Di = C D 0 , say, between the total- and induced-drag coefficients, is virtually independent of the aspect ratio. C D 0 represents the effects of the Reynolds number, section shape and jet configuration, which are excluded from the present theory.