Impact of Canard on the Flowfield over the Wing in Various Flow Regimes

Abstract

The flow induced by the canard has a lot to do with the flowfield over the wing and strongly affects the performance of the aircraft. Most of the previous studies have been confined to either subsonic or supersonic flow regimes and usually encompass computational force measurements. In the present paper, an in-depth study has been undertaken to investigate the vortical flow pattern on a generic canard-wing configuration. Surface pressure measurements have been performed. The results show that the downwash flowfield due to canard decreases the effective angle of attack seen by the front half of the wing by at least 3% or more, which postpones the vortex formation and development. The rear half especially at the outboard section on the other hand, is dominated by the canard upwash field, giving rise to the effective angle of attack to at least 5% of the original value. The interaction of the canard vortex with the wing leading edge vortex has been observed to increase the vortex strength and size on the wing. The present results, have found a nearly 10% increase in vortex size due to canard-wing vortices interaction. The present results could be employed to design and optimization of canard and wing in certain types of aircraft and missiles to enhance the maneuverability and operational performance.