Evaluation of a subsonic fluidic thrust vectoring concept - Part II: Impact on Propulsion System and Mission Performance

Abstract

This paper presents an investigation into the feasibility and performance of fluidic thrust vector control based on the Coanda effect for smaller aircraft. The study focuses on medium-mass unmanned airborne systems and demonstrates that fluidic thrust vector nozzles are viable at both the engine and aircraft level. A fully coupled simulation between the aircraft and its engine is conducted for an example generic mission with two variants to deflect the thrust vector. The results show that using fluidic thrust vectoring systems can lead to slight improvements in aerodynamic characteristics while reducing control surface size and thereby drag and radar cross-section. However, this comes at the cost of a slight increase in fuel consumption and a loss in the available engine thrust during flight situations with high power demand. The aerodynamic parameters used to model the fluidic thrust vector nozzle are obtained from CFD calculations.