The Coanda effect causes fluid or gas to hug a convex surface, discovered by Henri-Marie Coanda in the 1930s. This principle is relevant to aircraft design, including the Coanda thruster and circulation control wing technology. The science behind this effect is known as fluid dynamics.
The Coanda effect states that a stream of fluid or gas will hug a convex contour when directed at a tangent to that surface. This was discovered in the 1930s by a Romanian named Henri-Marie Coanda. What is unusual about the Coanda effect is that the flow of fluid or gas is pulled so strongly by a curved surface. A concave bend will naturally push the flow, but for a convex bend to react so strongly to the fluid or gas is unusual. This property is particularly relevant to aircraft design.
This principle was discovered and tested by Coanda on an airplane. He has studied his aircraft for more than 20 years to demonstrate that the air along the wing of the aircraft will be deflected downward due to the shape of the wing. The air leaves the wing, pushing the plane up and lifting it. This motion naturally results in a Coanda effect.
A Coanda effect can also be applied to modern aircraft. With a Coanda thruster, air is expelled from the front of the body and sticks to the surface before flowing to a higher surface. Attached air flowing in a sheet is called a Coanda jet, which flows to the rear of the thruster. This results in a large amount of air being sucked in from the surrounding atmosphere. Instead of positive air pressure at the front and negative air pressure at the rear, the opposite of resistance, also known as push, occurs.
Another important application of a Coanda effect is in circulation control wing technology. A Coanda surface is formed from the short, flat surface of a levitating device. The goal of circulation control wing technology is to use surfacing and slit blowing to replace the lift devices on the edges of a wing. The first use of this application was on a Boeing 707.
Since all applications of a Coanda effect involve a fluid object sliding over a solid one, the science behind this effect is known as fluid dynamics. Fluid dynamics represents the movement of liquids or gases. Studying this science can lead to many consequential discoveries such as the Coanda effect.
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