Shock control on a swept wing

Abstract

Shock and boundary layer control by contour bumps and local boundary layer suction have been investigated experimentally and numerically on a transonic swept wing. Additional 2-D numerical investigations were performed for the airfoil, corresponding to the wing. The investigations were primarily stimulated by the question concerned with the influence of sweep on the bump effectiveness. This influence has been found to be rather small; the drag reduction by the bump is slightly lower for the swept wing than for the airfoil. A location of the bump in the shock region has shown its effectiveness for reducing shock strength and hence wave drag. A position of the bump downstream of the shock wave has been shown to reduce viscous drag and to postpone buffet-onset to higher lift coefficients. Furthermore, the results indicate that boundary layer suction is a powerful device for drag reduction, but the effectiveness decreases with increasing Reynolds number. Higher effectiveness of suction can be attained, when it is coupled with a contour bump. The parameters height and position (relative to the shock) of the bump, optimized in terms of drag, depend on the shock strength; an influence of the boundary layer thickness upstream of the shock on the optimal bump parameters has not been found. A possibility to control an adaptive bump, mounted on an aircraft wing, is to employ the trailing edge pressure.