Vertical tail buffeting of fighter aircraft

Abstract

Vertical tail buffeting at high angles of attack is a phenomenon associated with the impact of vortical flows generated by the aircraft on the fins. This poses a serious problem for both single- and twin-tail fighter aircraft from the point of view of combat maneuverability and structural integrity. The research activities to understand the flow physics with an aim to alleviate buffet loads were quite intense during the period from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. Most of the investigations were carried out on the F/A-18 mainly because of two international programs involving countries that operate the F/A-18 in their air force. This review begins with a description of the water tunnel experiments showing some flow visualization results of the leading-edge extension (LEX) burst vortical flows. Wind tunnel studies on a 1/9 scale F/A-18 model in Australia, a 1/6.65 scale model in the United Kingdom, a 6% scale model in Canada, 12%, 16% and full-scale models in the United States are summarized. Scale effects can be deduced from the various sub- and full-scale models tested. Flight test results conducted on the High Alpha Research Vehicle in the United States and on an instrumented CF-18 test aircraft in Canada are presented. The accuracy of analytical methods utilizing wind tunnel data to predict buffet loads at flight conditions is discussed. The use of CFD to compute vertical fin buffeting is challenging and requires a large amount of computing power. A brief exposure to the methodology is given and results from the only available computational case study carried out by NASA Ames are compared with wind tunnel and flight test data. A short introduction to statistical non-stationary effects is given. Hysteresis effect of the LEX vortex burst on the buffet loads is discussed, and a statistical non-stationary buffet prediction method is outlined. This review provides a useful reference to the results collected from the High Alpha Technology Program, The Technical Cooperation Program and the International Follow-On Structural Test Project which together form an extremely valuable data base for vertical tail buffeting studies.