138results about How to "Increased drag" patented technology

A fluid delivery system includes an electric motor, a pump driven by the electric motor, and a control system. The control system is programmed to supply a variable voltage to the electric motor, to sense a response of a current of the electric motor to the variable voltage, and to obtain frequency domain information about the response of the current of the electric motor.

A wing for an aircraft has a passive jet spoiler for providing yaw control by increasing drag on the wing. The spoiler comprises an inlet located near the leading edge of a lower surface of the wing and at least one outlet formed on the lower surface or on an upper surface of the wing. An internal passage connects the inlet and each outlet for allowing air to pass from the inlet to the outlet. The air exits the outlets generally normal to the respective surface of the wing, causing a laminar flow to separate from the surfaces downstream of each outlet. The separated flow increases the drag on the wing, producing a yawing moment on the aircraft. Selective placement of the outlets on the upper and lower surfaces limits undesirable roll and pitch moments. Valves are provided for selectively controlling the amount of air passing through the spoiler.

A fiber optic sensor assembly capable of deployment down an instrumentation tube located in a well bore, including a flexible protective tube having a lumen encasing an optical fiber having a core portion and a cladding portion disposed within the flexible tube. The flexible protective tube protects the optical fiber from the oil, water or hydrogen gas within the well bore. A method of deploying the optical fiber down the well bore, is also provided. An optical fiber having a core and a cladding surrounded by the flexible protective tubing is deployed into the lumen of a tube disposed within the well bore by pumping a high pressure fluid into the lumen of the tube, thereby causing the deployment of the optical fiber down the well bore. The protective tubing is impermeable of hydrogen and other corrosive materials.

An aerodynamic control apparatus for an air vehicle improves various aerodynamic performance metrics by employing multiple spanwise flap segments that jointly form a continuous or a piecewise continuous trailing edge to minimize drag induced by lift or vortices. At least one of the multiple spanwise flap segments includes a variable camber flap subsystem having multiple chordwise flap segments that may be independently actuated. Some embodiments also employ a continuous leading edge slat system that includes multiple spanwise slat segments, each of which has one or more chordwise slat segment. A method and an apparatus for implementing active control of a wing shape are also described and include the determination of desired lift distribution to determine the improved aerodynamic deflection of the wings. Flap deflections are determined and control signals are generated to actively control the wing shape to approximate the desired deflection.

A blade for a rotor of a wind turbine has a substantially horizontal rotor shaft, the rotor including a hub, from which the blade extends substantially in a radial direction when mounted to the hub. The blade includes a profiled contour including a leading edge and a trailing edge as well as a pressure side and a suction side, the profiled contour when being impacted by an incident airflow generating a lift. The profiled contour is divided into a root region with a substantially circular profile closest to the hub, an airfoil region with a lift generating profile furthest away from the hub, and a transition region between the root region and the airfoil region. The profile of the transition region gradually changes in the radial direction from the circular profile of the root region to the lift generating profile of the airfoil region. The suction side comprises at least a first zone, which extends substantially in the direction of the incident airflow, and which is positioned in a zone of a cross-flow. The first zone includes a first barrier generating means adapted to generating a barrier of airflow, which extends essentially in the direction of the incident airflow, the barrier of airflow being of sufficient strength and length so as to effectively reduce the cross-flow.

To control and particularly steepen the landing glide path of an aircraft, a respective aerodynamic component mounted on each wingtip includes a fixed plane member and a pivotable control element pivotally connected to the fixed plane member. The pivot axis is perpendicular to the major plane of the wing. The pivotable control element can be selectively pivotally deflected about the pivot axis relative to the fixed plane member, so as to thereby increase the overall drag without influencing the overall lift of the aircraft. This achieves a fine adjustment that is superimposed on the basic landing configuration established by the setting of the flaps, spoilers, engine thrust, etc. By increasing the drag without influencing the lift, this steepens the landing glide path slope.

In some embodiments of the invention, methods and devices are provided that perturb a trajectory of a space-orbital object. For example, a spacecraft may be sent to a location near a space-orbital object orbiting the Earth. A net may be released from the spacecraft in a manner (e.g., with a given alignment, direction and velocity) that results in the net contacting and/or entangling with the object. This contact or entanglement may alter a velocity of the space-orbital object and thereby may alter its orbital path. In some instances, the net's velocity is sufficient to experience increase drag by the Earth's atmosphere, relative to the drag it would have otherwise experienced if the net did not contact the object.

A fairing system may be assembled about a rotor of a rotorcraft to present an aerodynamically quasi-static region that rotates in an airstream, as well as certain extensions that sweep through the airstream as the rotor hub passes through the air. A spherical interface between the extensions on the rotor hub fairing and the base or root portion of each blade fairing provides three degrees of freedom permitting lead-lag, flapping, and blade pitch pivoting in the blade, while still maintaining an aerodynamic profile that will minimize drag.

Methods and systems are provided for reducing aerodynamic drag on a moving vehicle. One example method comprises, during a first vehicle moving condition, operating the cooling fan, and during a second vehicle moving condition, selectively applying a braking torque on the fan.

A wind turbine blade is described, as well as a trailing edge plate for a wind turbine blade. A flexible flow modulation device, e.g. an acoustic flap or a plurality of serrations, is arranged at the trailing edge of a wind turbine blade, wherein the flexible device is coupled to at least one aerodynamic device, preferably vortex generators. As the flexible device is bent by action of flow over the wind turbine blade, the at least one aerodynamic device is deployed to provide for attached flow over the bent flexible device.

A system for loading and unloading a cargo assembly onto and from an aircraft. The system comprises an aircraft and a movable platform. The aircraft comprises a forward fairing, an aft fairing, a spine disposed between the forward fairing and the aft fairing and a plurality of mounts coupled to the spine and configured to structurally engage the cargo container onto the spine. The aft fairing is movable between a fixed position for flight and an open position for at least loading and unloading of the cargo assembly. The aircraft is configured such that an unobstructed passageway is provided in an area underneath the spine during loading or unloading of the cargo assembly. An aft access is provided when the aft fairing is moved to the open position. The movable platform is used to maneuver the cargo assembly for loading and unloading onto and from the spine, respectively.

A method for reducing drag upon a blunt-based vehicle by adaptively increasing forebody roughness to increase drag at the roughened area of the forebody, which results in a decrease in drag at the base of this vehicle, and in total vehicle drag.

A particular arrangement of vortex generators for an airfoil is described. The vortex generators are provided in pairs, preferably on a wind turbine blade, wherein by arranging the vortex generators according to specified characteristics, a surprising improvement in blade performance is provided over the prior art systems.

An upper wing surface of a laminar-flow airfoil for decreasing an undesirable head-lowering pitching moment around an aerodynamic center of the airfoil. The upper wing surface includes: a convex front profile portion extending from a leading edge to a largest-thickness point located corresponding to 38% of a wing chord length. A convex central profile portion extends from the largest-thickness point to a position corresponding to 90% of the wing chord length at which a value obtained by dividing a thicknesswise difference between the position and the largest-thickness point by a distance in a direction of the wing chord from the largest-thickness point is equal to or smaller than 0.12. A concave rear profile portion extends from a position corresponding to 95% of the wing chord length to the trailing edge. The rear profile portion forms a pressure gradient is steeper than that formed by the central profile portion.

A towed personal watercraft apparatus includes a submergible unit and a platform. The submergible unit comprises at least two independent vertical stabilizers and one or more hydrofoil units mounted to at least one of the vertical stabilizers. One or more of the hydrofoil units is pivotally attached to the vertical stabilizers. Pivotal attachment can include a torsion spring or roller bearing to allow the hydrofoil units to pivot or rotate about the pitch axis of the platform, thereby improving stability of the towed personal watercraft. Rotation of the hydrofoil units can be limited for functional concerns and performance. For example, rotation of the hydrofoils about the pivot can be allowed in a first direction to prevent a nose dive, while being restricted in a second direction to facilitate a launch of the watercraft out of the water. The platform includes a user mount, such as foot holds or equivalents.

A micropattern grip surface for use on a grip, and particularly a grip for a golf club, wherein the pattern includes alternating upstanding ridges and grooves between the ridges. In a preferred embodiment, the ridges extend with a generally longitudinal direction of extension component on the grip with a generally circumferential direction of extension component and also may be parallel. The ridges in an embodiment zigzag along the longitudinal direction. In an embodiment, at intersections or bends between the zig and the zag line elements, additional free end barbs extend from the intersections. The density, width and height of the line elements of the ridges are selected to provide drag on the hand or object gripping the grip, preferably in both the longitudinal and circumferential directions, and to give the grip a velvety feel. Alternatively, each of the ridges is comprised of some line elements. Each ridge or a set of line segments thereof may be aligned in a direction of at least one of longitudinally along, circumferentially around, obliquely to the axis or spirally around the grip surface.

An air duct for supplying ambient air in an aircraft includes an air inlet, a flow duct portion and a feed device that is devised to feed ambient air through the air inlet and the flow duct portion. A flow control flap closes the air inlet in a first position, releases a first flow cross-section of the air inlet in a second position and releases a larger second flow cross-section of the air inlet in a third position. The flow control flap is designed to not increase drag significantly in the second position while still enabling flow through the flow duct portion, while increasing drag to increase air fow through the flow duct portion in the third position.

A wetsuit has a plurality of pieces of material that are stitched or glued together to form the wetsuit, a drag-creating section provided on one of the pieces of material. The drag-creating section has a base, and a plurality of water catch devices, each water catch device having a flap piece, with a cavity defined between each flap piece and the base of the piece of material and an opening that leads to the cavity. Each flap piece is constructed such that it can be moved between a collapsed configuration where it is generally flat adjacent the underlying base of the piece of material , and an expanded configuration in which it stretches away from the underlying base of the piece of material. The plurality of water catch devices are arranged in two rows on opposite sides of the base, with the openings of each row of water catch devices facing each other.

Various exemplary embodiments of an increased aperture homing cavitator are disclosed. In one exemplary embodiment, a supercavitating body may include, e.g., but may not be limited to, a cavitator assembly having a front end and a back end, and having a shape operative to generate a concave cavity; an acoustical homing array coupled to the cavitator assembly; an afterbody coupled to the back end; a thruster coupled to the afterbody; and a ventilation system disposed within the afterbody, operative to supply gas to, and to maintain pressure within the cavity. In an exemplary embodiment, the size of the cavitator may be increased without a significant attendant increase in drag, thereby enabling a homing array of increased size and aperture.