Flow sensing for improved wake harvesting in formation flight

The sight of birds flying in formation, often in V-shaped patterns, has been a source of wonder for ages. When flying in such an orderly fashion, it has been established that the birds benefit from a positive aerodynamic interaction reducing the power they require in flight. Transposing the concept to civil aviation could lead to massive fuel savings, an outcome more than welcome amidst the current climate crisis. However, several operational challenges must be overcome before airliners can safely surf the wake of one another. One of them is the necessity of pinpointing the wake vortex location in space. This presentation will cover recent developments in wake vortex sensing and tracking techniques. First, we will review the underlying ingredients: 1) a reduced-order model of an aircraft in formation; 2) a robust estimator based on an ensemble Kalman filter, and; 3) a numerical simulation tool employed as a surrogate for a realistic environment. Second, we will explore how the sensing techniques perform in various situations to determine their capabilities and limitations. Finally, we will circle back to the aerodynamics of birds and highlight how the characteristics of their wake affect their performance in a formation.

Affiliations

UCLouvainSST/IMMC/TFL - Thermodynamics and fluid mechanics

Citations

APA
Chicago
FWB

Caprace, D.-G., Ransquin, I., Colognesi, V., & Chatelain, P. (2022). Flow sensing for improved wake harvesting in formation flight. Intelligent and Bio-inspired Mechanics. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/267413