An Analysis on the lift

generation for Coanda

Micro Air Vehicles
INTRODUCTION

Coanda effect has drawn renewed interest for various applications, among
other for generating lift and maneuvering impulses to be applied for
unmanned air vehicles (UAV) and micro air vehicles (MAV), in addition to its
well established use as circulation control technique it takes advantage of
the utilization of Coanda effect for such purpose, a basic understanding of
the principle of lift generation using Coanda effect should be understood. It
is with such motivation that present work is devoted to establish the
working principles and relationship capitalizing on fundamental principles.
Understanding such basic principles may assist us in devising MAV design
focusing on the influences, effectiveness and configurations of Coanda jet
fitted aerodynamic surface of MAV, to improve its lift augmentation with a
view on its incorporation in the design. Special attention to be given on the
modeling and prototyping concept of Coanda jet, to generate lift of micro
air vehicles. Based on a critical review of Coand effect MAV a physical and
mathematical model is developed which can accurately describe the
physical phenomena of the flow field near deflections surfaces influenced
by jet sheets by means of the Coanda effect and to obtain the relationship
between relevant parameters to the lift. The result obtained on the lift and
propulsion of a baseline MAV will be discussed in view of wealth of Coand
effect technologies. Specifically, two examples will be addressed, spherical
and cylindrical Coand jet MAV configurations.
I have worked on semi- spherical coanda saucer

COANDA JET AND COANDA EFFECT

Based on the progress, development and successful applications of Coanda
jet for circulation enhancement and lift generation, one may arrive at the
definition of Coanda jet as a relatively thin and slightly viscous jet flowing
over a smooth curved surface and within the thickness of the prevailing
boundary layer over that surface. However, with such definition, some
critical variables may have to be identified and investigated further, such
as viscosity, jet thickness, radius of curvature of the surface, jet velocity,
etc., could be addressed through further analysis using basic principles,

simulation using computational fluid dynamics CFD as appropriate, as well

as experimental work. The latter, however, should be well designed through
careful theoretical and fundamental analysis. Present analysis will not
consider the viscous velocity profile elaborated by Dumitrache et al and can
be considered to be a simplified version to gain first and baseline insight
into the problem; further similar approach will be the subject of a later
development of this work.

III. MATHEMATICAL MODELS FOR VARIOUS

COANDA MAV CONFIGURATIONS
A. Spherical (Saucer-Like) Coanda MAV

As a generic Coanda UAV/MAV configuration, reference is made to Fig. 1 [14], where

a rotor is placed at the center of the hollow fuselage body to draw air in from above
the craft to produce radial jet over the surface of the curved body to form a Coanda
jet blanket

In addition, the rotor may serve as an actuator to produce vertical strip-stream

through the hollow fuselage similar to that of a helicopter

To analyze the generation of lift for such vehicle configuration due to the Coanda jet
blanket, fundamental conservation principles will be applied on the saucer-like
vehicle due to the presence of the Coanda jet blanket, first without considering
the presence of the rotor slip stream at the center of the vehicle. For convenience in
the analysis, the control volume encroaching the vehicle is drawn in Fig. 1, while Fig.
2 exhibits the meridian cross-section of the vehicle. In the following a rigorous
analysis is carried out to elaborate how Coand effect contributes to the generation
of lift capability of Coand MAV. First the analysis will address the Coand effect for
lift. The continuity equation alongside the Coand Blanket (see Figs. 2 and 3) is
given by

For the total lifting force due to Coanda effect; consider the control volume Fig. 1
and momentum equation in the vertical direction (Fig. 3):
Lift force due to Coand Blanket = Vertical component of momentum balance due
to Coand Blanket + Pressure difference on the body of MAV subject to Coand
Blanket.
Considering the contribution of lift from the momentum equation along the Coand
system, then since the momentum in, in the radial direction does not contribute to
lift, the lift due to the Coand Blanket is given by:

The contribution of lift from the pressure differential due to the curved Coanda
Blanket covering the MAV body can be calculated by considering the balance of
pressure (since there are no other external forces) due to the pressure on the
curved section of vehicle wall and underneath the body. From the

Bernoulli equation along any streamline in the Coanda Blanket,1

At any point R between Ri and Ro the pressure is given by

To gain insight into the basic contribution, one can consider RI=0. Then from
conservation of mass:

For the control volume CV1 enclosing the solid body of MAV (shown in Fig. 3, case
1), the total vertical force due to pressure difference is then given by

while if the space between the upper curved surface and the bottom part of the
vehicle is a plenum chamber, which implies the applicable control volume CV2 (in
red, Fig. 3, case 2), which is at the atmospheric pressure Pa

Therefore, the lift due to pressure difference for case 1 is:

which is an upward force. For case 2, from (7), pa in (8) will drop off. Hence the
total lift due to Coand jet blanket momentum and Coand jet blanket induced
pressure difference becomes

Hence, due to the presence of the Coanda blanket, the Coanda MAV has additional
lift given in comparison to a simple micro air vehicle powered by actuator disk

B. Lift Generated by the Rotor/ Actuator

Disk
Since the Coand jet should be generated by some sort of compressor, a baseline
configuration as exhibited in Fig. 4 depicts a MAV configuration consisting of a
propeller at the center with partly bled flow introduced in radial direction to incite
Coand effect along the surface of the spherical MAV. Therefore, the part of the lift
generated by the propeller can be calculated using actuator disk theory;

which should be added to (9), and modified to account for the actuator disk
cylindrical part with assumed uniform radius RI.
Following the Betz limit, the maximum actuator disk is then 59%, which
achievable efficiency (optimum) for simila cross sectional areas

C. Cylindrically Shaped Coanda

MAV
Similar analysis can readily be made shaped MAV, which for example has exhibited
in Fig. 5. The analysis can be carr the same procedure above, assuming incomp In
the following analysis the cylindrically MAV is idealized as depicted in Figs. 6
cylindrically shaped upper surface to have depth of l. The Coanda jet flowing over it
is assumed to be a thin jet sheet of thickness h (h<<R), thus the pressure gradient
dP/dR across the jet sheet is assumed to be negligible

1) Continuity conservation of mass

Consider taking a control volume around the body, by using the conservation of mass
equation,

2) Euler equation:
Momentum Force Balance Consideration will be given to momentum-force
balance in the vertical direction, which is relevant for lift generation.
Force in the y-direction = Momentum Out in the y-direction Momentum In in
the y-direction
The contribution of lift from the momentum equation along the Coand system,
taking into account that at the inlet, the momentum is in the radial direction
therefore;

To find the pressure forces acting on the coanda surface, the bernoulie can be
used aalong the stream line encroached by the coanda jet., assuming the average
pressure at each cross section of the coanda jet to act uniformly across the cross
section

The pressure force acting on the flow with curved stream line :

Total vertical force due to pressure difference is

Hence it can be readily shown that resultant forces that contribute the lift are
given by

Or

IV.Discussion
In the analysis of Coand MAV, the present paper considers a configuration of MAV
consisting of Actuator disc at the center (hence doughnut shape) and the Coand
jet blanketing the outer and upper surface of the doughnut with jet flow
originating from the actuator disk or other device with similar effect. The analysis
has been carried out using fundamental conservation principle, which should
govern the state of affairs except for other factors that have not been considered
in the analysis. It is then necessary to compare and validate the analysis with other
experimental or earlier theoretical analysis, to gain in-depth understanding of the
underlying principles and to devise experimental or practical MAV's and/or UAV's.
The plausibility of the analytical model developed in this work will also be
instrumental in carrying out further CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamic) simulation
and carrying out strategic experimental work. It is with such objectives in mind
that the earlier Coand MAV related work of Schroijen and Van Tooren [13] and
Benner [17] come into view. To begin with, the contribution of lift from the
momentum as given by (13) agrees with those obtained by Schroijen and Van
Tooren and Benner. For the cylindrically shaped Coand MAV (Fig. 5), the utilization
of conservation principles elaborated in section III.C produced lift generation given
by (18) (or alternatively, (19) or (20)), which consists of Coand jet momentum
(first term on the right-hand-side) and the pressure difference due to the the
curved jet flow (Coand blanket) (second term on the right-hand-side) on the upper
surface of the Coand MAV,

The second term of (18) (or (20)) has also been considered by Schroijen and
Van Tooren [13]. It is also of interest that in his work on the effect of Coand jet
impinging on a curved surface that is widely separated from a jet nozzle,
Benner [17] has carefully considered the pressure lift force due to the curved
Coand jet blanket due to centrifugal force, and arrived at an expression similar
to the second term of (18).
Accordingly a parametric study is carried out to evaluate the ratio of the
Coand MAV thrust output over the Coand jet input momentum (i.e. thrust/
{ (Vjet-input) 2 Ajet-input}) as a function of the dimensionless parameter
Coand MAV jet input thickness over the Coand MAV radius, {hjet-input /R}.
The results are exhibited in Fig. 10. As a baseline configuration, the inlet
velocity is assumed to be 20 m/s with a jet thickness to the body radius ratio of
1/20. The diameter of the air vehicle is taken to be 1m.

At this point, Fig. 10 should be considered in a qualitative manner

commensurate with the simplifying assumptions adopted in the theoretical
analysis. However, it exhibits the tendency of the performance measure, in
particular lift (or vertical thrust) as a function of Coand jet input force due to
its dynamic pressure at the inlet. Comparative assessment with other results
needs further analysis which will be given in the near future. By way of another
comparison, a CFD simulation using the ANSYS 14.5 Fluent code [18] is carried
out to give another insight into the present theoretical modelling. The CFD
simulation has been carried out for the generic cases represented by Figs. 2
and 3 and are exhibited in Fig. 11. The upper figure exhibits streamlines
pressure distribution and the lower one the pressure distribution. Further work
and elaboration is in progress. The mathematical development presented in this
work can be further utilized for other configurations of threedimensional
Coand MAV with various geometrical alternatives

V.

CONCLUSION

A rigorous analysis based on fundamental principles has been carried

out to analyze the generation of lift on a three- dimensional "doughnutshape" like Coand jet MAV, which utilized an actuator (propeller) to
produce downward flow and Coand jet. The results show the three
components of lift generated by such system; these are the lift due to
the Coand jet momentum, the lift due to the pressure difference
between the lower and upper surfaces of the MAV due to the Coand
jet curvature, and the lift due to actuator disk effect of the propeller.
Two types of flow configurations are analyzed the spherical and the
cylindrical MAV configurations. By applying the fundamental
conservation principle in continuum mechanics, the present analysis

on Coand jet configured MAV has given a comprehensive

account on the lift generation due to Coand jet effect.
In retrospect, other factors related to the Coand jet have not been
given careful considerations in the literature, among others, the effect
of the Coand jet thickness and the stability of Coand jet. Some other
critical variables may have to be identified and investigated further,
such as viscosity, jet thickness, radius of curvature of the surface, jet
velocity, etc.

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