• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.221-231
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• 2021

In the present study, numerical simulation was performed to investigate aerodynamic characteristics of a ducted fan-upper/lower vanes system in hover. Sensitivity analysis of aerodynamic forces for a system component was conducted with the deflection angle of upper vanes varying but at the constant rotational speed and the collective pitch angle of fan blades. Then, vane control performance and duct airload distributions were analyzed in detail to physically understand operating mechanisms of individual vane and interference effect between duct and vanes. Finally, new control concept of operating upper vanes has been proposed to improve the control performance of the full configuration. It is found that the side force and rolling moment of upper vanes increase linearly with the variation of those deflection angle; however, the total side force is significantly small due to the reaction force acted on the duct. It is also found that upper vanes close to the duct contraction side have a key role in changing vane control forces. It is revealed that the duct suction pressure is induced by the interaction with the suction side of upper vanes, while duct pressure recovery by the interaction with the pressure side, leading to increase in duct asymmetric force. When four upper vanes are kept in situ at 0° deflection angle or removed, the total control performance was improved with duct asymmetric force reduced and the total magnitude of roll remarkably increasing up to 80%.