Experimental investigation of an active slat for airfoil load alleviation

This article discusses the utilization of an active slat concept to reduce turbulence induced fluctuating loads on an airfoil. The performance of the active slat is tested in the wind tunnel under different complex inflows created by an active grid resulting in variations in the angle of attack. Different open loop control strategies are developed to mitigate the load fluctuations on the airfoil. The aerodynamics around the airfoil is changed by actively moving the trailing edge of the slat. It is observed that the active slat concept is able to alleviate load fluctuations on the airfoil for inflow angle fluctuations of different scales.