Advances influidic thrust vectoring technique research

In contrast to the mechanical deflecting nozzle, the fluidic thrust vectoring control hires flow control methods to realize the jet vectoring, which is expected to be a more efficient way to manipulate the thrust direction. Among the main fluidic vectoring control methods, including shock vectoring control(SVC), dual throat nozzle(DTN), counter-flow(CC) and co-flow control, performance parameters such as the thrust vectoring efficiency, the thrust ratio and the discharge coefficient are compared based on published experimental and computational data. It shows that SVC, DTN and CC methods produce thrust vectoring in a wide range of Nozzle Pressure Ratio(NPR) from 1.8 to 10, and are extendable to pitch/yaw control or multi-axis control. Comparatively, DTN and co-flow control are superior to SVC and CC in the thrust loss and thrust vectoring efficiency, yet DTN is disadvantageous in the discharge coefficient as a consequence of throat injection, and the working range of co-flow method is highly limited. In pursuit of highly efficient control, some new methods of jet vectoring are introduced, and the principles, potential advantages and challenges of each method are discussed. These methods adopt after-deck-flow control and introduce little disturbance to the main jet, which are desirable for the thrust vectoring control. Such methods show promising prospects and the related experience should be drawn on for further studies.