Patent ID: 8569668

Claim:
An active vortex control system (AVOCS) to protect components from an external environment, comprising: a protective cover, said cover defining a cavity having an opening to the external environment; one or more components inside the cavity; and a gas canister and one or more injectors configured to inject gas into the cavity with tangential and inward radial velocity components to generate a coherent vortex in front of the one or more components and an axial velocity component that causes the vortex to advance towards the opening to interfere with an external flow field in the opening; further comprising a mass flow controller configured to inject gas at a mass flow rate such that said vortex produces a cavity pressure approximately equal to or greater than the free stream Pitot pressure of the external flow field, a linear momentum approximately equal to or greater than the momentum of the external flow field and an angular momentum to maintain coherence of the vortex.