Leading-Edge Pressure Response to Partial-Span Coandă Actuation

This study investigates the aerodynamic characteristics and leading edge pressure distributions of a partial-span dual-sided trailing-edge (TE) Coandă actuator applied to a symmetric NACA 0012 airfoil under uniform freestream conditions. Experiments were conducted to quantify how total and differential blowing through the Coandă slots, together with angle of attack, affect aerodynamic loading and leading-edge pressure distribution. Results show that Coandă blowing primarily shifts the effective zero-lift angle of attack while leaving the lift-curve slope nearly unchanged, indicating minimal interactions between angle of attack and actuator input when augmenting net lift. In advancing flow, dual-sided blowing did not yield greater lift augmentation than single-sided operation in the momentum coefficient range tested. Leading-edge pressure variations demonstrate that pressure change induced by the TE Coandă jet significantly affects regions outside the actuator’s span. The induced circulation propagates laterally, redistributing lift spanwise and extending its influence beyond the actuator’s span into regions without direct jet input.