A review of flow control for gust load alleviation

Effective control of aerodynamic loads, such as maneuvering load and gust load, allows for reduced structural weight and therefore greater aerodynamic efficiency. After a basic introduction in the types of gusts and the current gust load control strategies for aircraft, we outline the conventional gust load alleviation techniques using trailing-edge flaps and spoilers. As these devices also function as high-lift devices or inflight speed brakes, they are often too heavy for high-frequency activations such as control surfaces. Non-conventional active control devices via fluidic actuators have attracted some attention recently from researchers to explore more effective gust load alleviation techniques against traditional flaps for future aircraft design. Research progress of flow control using fluidic actuators, including surface jet blowing and circulation control (CC) for gust load alleviation, is reviewed in detail here. Their load control capabilities in terms of lift force modulations are outlined and compared. Also reviewed are the flow control performances of these fluidic actuators under gust conditions. Experiments and numerical efforts indicated that both CC and surface jet blowing demonstrate fast response characteristics, capable for timely adaptive gust load controls.