Aviation Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for aircraft pilots, mechanics, and enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Slotted flap is an improved version of the plain flap, generating more lift (a fact I don't challenge). However the principle is air passing between the wing and the flap.
This seems counterproductive as this airstream could also prevent the upper stream to follow the airfoils shape, and lead to air being less rotated downward than with a plain flap.
How does the slotted flap happen to be superior?
The slot helps to prevent early separation, so the flap stays effective for larger deflection angles. What that means in reality can be read in this old NACA report which compares two NACA23012 sections, one with a plain flap and the other with a slotted flap. I have copied the pressure distributions below from that PDF:
Now I need to explain a little how to read the pressure distribution plots. The solid line shows the local pressure on the upper surface while the dashed line shows the pressure on the lower surface of the airfoil. The X-axis runs along the chord. The Y-axis represents pressure (suction is up) and y=0 represents ambient pressure. The area between the dashed and the solid lines is proportional to the lift coefficient, which is helpfully shown below each plot.
Now to the curvature: As long as the lines show a gradient, flow is attached. Separated flow can be recognized by a horizontal line slightly above the X-axis. As you can see, we have already fully separated flow on the upper plain flap surface at 30° flap angle and 8° angle of attack. At the same angles the slotted flap still shows fully attached flow on both surfaces. Attached flow creates a suction peak at the nose of the flap, which in turn allows a higher suction value at the end of the fixed part of the airfoil. This in turn allows a much higher suction peak at the nose of the airfoil, so that the suction force over the whole chord of the airfoil with the slotted flap is much higher than on the airfoil with the plain flap.
Only at 50° flap deflection will the slotted flap also show flow separation over the rear part of the flap, but there is still a suction peak which helps to stabilize the flow over the fixed part and increases lift. Unfortunately, the plain flap was not measured at the same angle, but from the small change between the 30° and 45° flap angles you can see already that moving the flap to 50° will change little.
The reason for this difference is simple: While the plain flap has only the old, thick and tired boundary layer coming from the fixed part of the airfoil to work with, the slot allows the slotted flap to create a new, thin and vigorous boundary layer which can tolerate much higher pressure gradients. Another benefit is the unchanging direction of the local flow behind the fixed airfoil: This allows to use a thin, highly cambered flap airfoil which maximizes lift production. The old NACA airfoil did not take advantage of this, but modern airliner flaps certainly do.
The answer lays into the pressure gradient.
The air that flows along the top surface comes from an area of (extreme) low pressure and has to travel down the wing, a direction where the gradient is "adverse": the pressure is increasing and the air would like to stop. The higher the lift being produced by the same wing, the higher this adverse gradient is.
When do we use flaps? When we need lots of lift at low speeds: it is a situation where the upper flow of air has the least incentive in remaining attached to the wing. The flow is slow and the gradient is as strong as it gets.
Enter the picture the cross flow of air passing through the slot. This is a flow coming from a high pressure region. It will encounter a low pressure region at the beginning of the flap surface, yes, but the remaining gradient will be completely negligible, and the flow will remain attached to the wing for longer, making a stall less likely.
Good article how any slot works. Popular misconception is that air increase velocity in slot,this is not case.Same apply for slotted flap.
(A.M.O. Smith High lift aerodynamics), page 518, chapter 5.3 Multi element Airfoils-General
quote from text:
"There are two things wrong with these statements.First of all,the slat does not give the air in the slot higher velocity.If anything,it gives the air low velocity."
https://charles-oneill.com/aem614/ReferenceMaterial/A+M+O+Smith+HIGH+LIFT+AERODYNAMICS.pdf
Slat effect—in the vicinity of the leading edge of a downstream element, the velocities due to circulation on a forward element, for example, a slat, run counter to the velocities on the downstream element and so reduce pressure peaks on the downstream element.
Circulation effect—in turn, the downstream element causes the trailing edge of the adjacent upstream element to be in a region of high velocity that is inclined to the mean line at the rear of the forward element. Such flow inclination induces considerably greater circulation on the forward element
Dumping effect—because the trailing edge of a forward element is in a region of velocity appreciably higher than freestream, the boundary layer /'dumps" at a high velocity. The higher discharge velocity relieves the pressure rise impressed on the boundary layer, thus alleviating separation problems or permitting increased lift.
Off-the-surface pressure recovery—the boundary layer from forward elements is dumped at velocities appreciably higher than freestream. The final deceleration to freestream velocity is done in an efficient manner. The deceleration of the wake occurs out of contact with a wall. Such a method is more effective than the best possible deceleration in contact with a wall.
Fresh-boundary-layer effect—each new element starts out with a fresh boundary layer at its leading edge. Thin boundary layers can withstand stronger adverse gradients than thick ones.
