Fluid propulsion system

Abstract

A fluid propulsion system includes a fuselage and at least one main wing having an upper surface, at least one recess in the upper surface, and at least one conduit in fluid communication with the at least one recess. At least one ejector is disposed within the at least one recess and is configured to receive compressed air via the at least one conduit.

Description

[0001] This divisional application is a divisional application based on the Chinese patent application with application number 202080020150.2, application date January 21, 2020, and invention name “Fluid Propulsion System”.

[0002] Priority declaration

[0003] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 794,464, filed on January 18, 2019, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety as if fully set forth herein.

[0004] Copyright Notice

[0005] This disclosure is protected by U.S. and / or international copyright laws. Copyright © 2020 Jetoptera, Inc. All rights reserved. Portions of the disclosure of this patent document contain material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and / or Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. Background Art

[0006] The lift produced by a normal wing is generated by the airflow conditions around the wing and the geometry of the wing. By varying the speed and angle of attack and the surface (surface changes) of, for example, flaps, the lift of the wing can be controlled; the goal is to maximize the production of lift with a compact and lightweight wing. Wings are generally becoming larger for greater efficiency and are made of composite materials to keep weight under control.

[0007] It is desirable to minimize the weight of the wing and maximize lift generation. It is desirable to minimize the footprint and weight of the thrust generating device and maximize its output (thrust). This translates into minimization of fuel or energy consumption.

[0008] In most conventional aircraft, it is currently impossible to direct the jet jet to the wing or airfoil to utilize its lost energy. In the case of a turbojet engine, the high temperature of the jet jet actually excludes its use in generating lift via the wing. Typical jet exhaust temperatures are 1000 degrees Celsius, and sometimes higher when used to increase thrust after combustion, as is the case with most military aircraft. When using a turbofan engine, despite the use of high bypass ratios on modern aircraft, due to the rotation of the fan, although the blades guiding the fan and the core mainly discharge the fluid in the axial direction, there are still significant non-axial residual elements. The presence of hot gases in the core at very high temperatures and the residual rotational movement of the mixture that appears, as well as the cylindrical nature of the jet in the downwash flow, make it impractical to use a wing placed directly behind the turbofan engine. In addition, the mixing length of the cold airflow and hot airflow from a jet engine (such as a turbofan engine) appears in miles, not inches. On the other hand, the larger turboprop engines currently used will produce a large downwash cylindrical airflow of the size of the propeller diameter, in which the rotational component behind the propeller is higher in speed and moves a large amount of air at a lower speed. The rotational component makes it difficult to use the downstream kinetic energy for purposes other than propulsion, and therefore, part of the kinetic energy is lost and cannot be effectively utilized. Some of the air moved by the large propeller is also directed to the core of the engine. In summary, the jet stream from current propulsion systems has surplus energy and potential that is currently untapped. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] Figure 1 shows a top perspective view of an aircraft according to an embodiment;

[0010] Figure 2 Yes Figure 1 a front plan view of the aircraft shown;

[0011] Figure 3 It shows that Figure 1 an exploded view of the wing and jet assembly of the aircraft shown;

[0012] Figure 4 The turbine and compressor components are shown as Figure 1 a top, partially cut-away perspective view of the wing and jet assembly of the illustrated aircraft;

[0013] Figure 5 shows a top plan view of an aircraft according to an alternative embodiment; and

[0014] Figure 6 A top perspective view of an aircraft is shown according to another alternative embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0015] The application is intended to describe one or more embodiments of the present invention. It should be understood that the use of absolute terms (such as "must", "will", etc.) and specific numbers will be interpreted as applicable to one or more such embodiments, but not necessarily to all of these embodiments. Therefore, embodiments of the present invention can omit or include modifications of one or more features or functions described in the context of such absolute terms. In addition, the titles in this application are for reference purposes only and do not affect the meaning or interpretation of the present invention in any way.

[0016] Embodiments combine features that increase both thrust and lift by embedding a propeller / jet into a lift-generating device, such as a wing or other aerodynamic surface.Such a jet may be embedded, for example, on the top surface of a wing.

[0017] A thrust enhancement device, which may be referred to as an ejector, such as described in U.S. Patent Application No. 15 / 256,178 (incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth herein), uses a pressurized fluid stream (e.g., compressed air) that would otherwise produce a certain amount of thrust by expansion to atmospheric conditions (entitlement thrust), but is able to produce more thrust by entraining ambient air and transferring energy and thus increasing entitlement thrust. The ejector may be shaped non-circularly and may be shaped similarly to the upper surface of a wing so that it can be easily embedded in the wing.

[0018] An embodiment of the present invention combines these two elements. It combines a thrust increase of, for example, 2.0 with a lift increase and enables the wing to have an aggressive angle of attack without stalling, achieving at least a 1.5x lift enhancement through a combination of boundary layer suction and jet surfaces. This combination can enable short takeoff and landing and maneuverability of the aircraft beyond the current capabilities of the individual systems.

[0019] In an embodiment of the invention, the airflow emitted by the ejector can be used for lift generation by being directed directly to a thin wing (e.g., a trailing edge surface of a wing arranged at the tail of the exit plane of the ejector). For example, in the case where the ejector jet axial velocity is 125% greater than the aircraft airspeed, the wing portion receiving the jet jet airflow can generate more than 50% higher lift for the same wingspan than if the wingspan was only washed by the airspeed of the aircraft air. For example, using this example, if the ejector jet velocity is increased to 150%, the lift will become more than 45% higher than the original wing at the aircraft airspeed, including the density reduction effect if the pressurized exhaust gas from the turbine is used.

[0020] Figure 1 and 2An aircraft 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. The aircraft 100 includes a fuselage 101, a front canard 102, and a tail 103 attached to the fuselage 101. The aircraft 100 also includes a pair of main wings 104 attached to the fuselage 101 and having jets 105 embedded therein. In the illustrated embodiment, each jet 105 gradually becomes smaller as they are located from the fuselage 101 to the tip of the wing 104.

[0021] like Figure 3 As best shown, wing 104 includes recesses 106 configured to receive and house jets 105 and to serve as fore-aft aerodynamic surfaces for each jet. Figure 4 The aircraft 100 can also include a gas turbine engine 107 and a compressor 108 that distributes compressed air throughout the interior of the wing 104 and to the ejectors 105 via ducts 109, such as Figure 3 shown.

[0022] As a result of this configuration, at least one embodiment of the present invention provides a lift and thrust augmentation device that combines a lift generating surface 104 shaped approximately like a wing with a very aggressive aerodynamic geometry with an ejector 105 that uses a pressurized fluid source (e.g., air in the exhaust gas). The ejector 105 is arranged to be consistent in geometry and function with the lift generating device so that the combination generates more lift and thrust than the wing shaped device 104 and the ejector alone.

[0023] In such an embodiment, the inlets of the ejectors 105 are optimally placed and distributed along the span on the upper surface of the wing 104 to allow boundary layer suction to form over the leading edge of the upper surface of the wing and flow along the upper surface of the wing to eliminate boundary layer separation and thereby delay or eliminate stall to increase the angle of attack.

[0024] In such an embodiment, the outlets of the ejectors 105 are optimally placed and distributed along the span on the upper surface of the wing 104 to allow the boundary layer to be excited and ejected as a wall jet in a streamwise direction along the upper surface of the wing to control lift generation on the upper surface of the wing.

[0025] In such an embodiment, pressurized fluid is supplied through the wing 104 to the jets 105 in a fluid network that allows each jet to be individually regulated and shut off, thus distributing not only thrust but also lift (when required) when needed.

[0026] Alternatively, immediately after the aircraft has completed takeoff maneuvers and transitioned to level flight, a wing (e.g., a lightweight wing) may be deployed just behind the jet exit plane to help generate more lift to reduce engine power.

[0027] Alternatively, using this embodiment of the invention, the span of the wing does not need to be as long, and for the same chord, the span can be reduced by more than 40% to produce the same lift. In this lift L equation (Eq. 1) known to those skilled in the art:

[0028] L=1 / 2ρV2SC L Eq.1

[0029] Where S is the surface area of ​​the wing, ρ is the density, V is the velocity of the vehicle (wing), and C L is the lift coefficient. If the jet is always pointed directly at the wing during horizontal flight, the wing is thin and the chord, camber and C L With similarities to the original wing, a drone with a wingspan of, say, 10 ft could have its wingspan reduced to just 6 ft. If the mixing ratio (or jet coefficient) is large, temperature has much less of an adverse effect on density, so the jet is only slightly hotter.

[0030] Figure 5 An embodiment is shown that provides an alternative to the traditional method of placing jet engines on the wings of an aircraft to generate thrust. Figure 5 In the embodiment, the gas generator 501 generates a motive air flow for providing power to a series of ejectors 502 embedded in the main wing (e.g., wing 503) for forward propulsion by directly emitting airflow from the trailing edge of the main wing. In this embodiment, the gas generator 501 is embedded in the main fuselage 504 of the aircraft, fluidly connected to the ejectors 502 via a duct 505 and is the only way for the aircraft to be propelled. The ejectors 502 can be circular or non-circular, have an outlet structure of a corresponding shape similar to the terminal 101, and provide airflow from the generator 501 and the duct 505 at a predetermined adjustable speed. In addition, the ejectors 502 can move in a manner similar to flaps and ailerons, which can rotate 180° and can be actuated to control the attitude of the aircraft in addition to providing the required thrust. The aileron 506 with a leading edge 507 is placed in series with the wing 503 and is located directly behind the ejectors 502, so that the airflow from the ejectors 502 flows through the aileron 506. The aileron 506 thus receives a speed much higher than the airspeed of the aircraft and therefore generates a high lift, since lift is proportional to the square of the airspeed. The entire aileron 506 is rotatable about an axis oriented parallel to the leading edge 507 .

[0031] In this embodiment of the invention, the aileron 506 will exhibit a moderately higher temperature due to the mixing of the motive fluid (also referred to as the primary fluid) produced by the gas generator 501 and the secondary fluid (ambient air), which is entrained by the motive fluid at a ratio of 5-25 parts of secondary fluid per part of primary fluid. Thus, the aileron 506 exhibits a temperature slightly above the ambient temperature, but significantly below the motive fluid, which allows the material of the aileron to support and maintain lift loads, according to the formula: T mix =(T motive +ER*T amb ) / (1+ER), where T mix is the final fluid mixture temperature of the jet stream discharged from the ejector 502, ER is the entrainment ratio of the number of parts of ambient air entrained per part of motive air, T motive is the hotter temperature of the motive or primary fluid, and T amb Close to ambient air temperature.

[0032] Figure 6 An alternative embodiment of the present invention featuring a tandem wing is depicted. In the illustrated embodiment, an aileron 1010 is placed just downstream of the enhanced wing 702, 902 so that the fluid flowing over the main wing 701 and the airflow from the enhanced wing flows past the aileron. The combination of two relatively short wings 701, 1010 produces more lift than a wing of much larger span lacking the enhanced wing 702, 902, which relies on a jet engine attached to the larger wing to produce thrust.

[0033] Although the preceding text sets forth a detailed description of many different embodiments, it should be understood that the scope of protection is defined by the text of the appended claims. The detailed description is to be interpreted as exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment, as it would be impractical, if not impossible, to describe every possible embodiment. Many alternative embodiments may be implemented using current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this patent, which will still fall within the scope of the claims.

[0034] Therefore, many modifications and variations may be made to the techniques and structures described and illustrated herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims. Therefore, it should be understood that the methods and apparatus described herein are illustrative only and do not limit the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. An aircraft, comprising: body; a main wing coupled to the fuselage and having an upper surface having a plurality of recesses formed therein, a distal end, and a leading edge; a source of pressurized fluid coupled to the fuselage; at least one conduit in fluid communication with the plurality of recesses and the source of pressurized fluid; and a plurality of injectors, each of the plurality of injectors having an inlet and disposed within a respective one of the plurality of recesses and configured to receive a pressurized fluid via the at least one conduit, a first portion of each of the plurality of injectors disposed below the upper surface, and a second portion of each of the plurality of injectors disposed above the upper surface.

2. The aircraft according to claim 1, wherein: The inlet of the ejector is positioned on the upper surface so as to be able to inhale boundary layer air formed on the leading edge.

3. The aircraft according to claim 1, wherein: The size of each jet gradually decreases as each jet is positioned in the main wing from the fuselage toward the distal end.

4. The aircraft of claim 1, further comprising a canard coupled to the fuselage and positioned forwardly along the fuselage relative to the main wing.

5. The aircraft according to claim 1, wherein: Each recess comprises a fore-aft aerodynamic surface of each respective ejector.

6. The aircraft of claim 1 further comprising an aileron coupled to the fuselage, the aileron having a leading edge and located directly downstream of the jets such that airflow from each jet flows over the leading edge of the aileron.

7. The aircraft according to claim 1, wherein: The source of pressurized fluid is disposed in the fuselage.

8. The aircraft according to claim 1, wherein: The fluid produced by the pressurized fluid source is the sole means of propulsion for the vehicle.

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