Analysis of flow separation control using nanosecond-pulse discharge plasma actuators on a flying wing

Dielectric barrier discharge （DBD） plasma is one of most promising flow control method for its several advantages. The present work investigates the control authority of nanosecond pulse DBD plasma actuators on a flying wing model＇s aerodynamic characteristics. The aerodynamic forces and moments are studied by means of experiment and numerical simulation. The numerical simulation results are in good agreement with experiment results. Both results indicate that the NS-DBD plasma actuators have negligible effect on aerodynamic forces and moment at the angles of attack smaller than 16-. However, significant changes can be achieved with actuation when the model＇s angle of attack is larger than 16° where the flow separation occurs. The spatial flow field structure results from numerical simulation suggest that the volumetric heat produced by NS-DBD plasma actuator changes the local temperature and density and induces several vortex structures, which strengthen the mixing of the shear layer with the main flow and delay separation or even reattach the separated flow.

Experimental Investigation of Flow Separation Control Using Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Actuators

Influence of plasma actuators as a flow separation control device was investigated experimentally. Hump model was used to demonstrate the effect of plasma actuators on external flow separation, while for internal flow separation a set of compressor cascade was adopted. In order to investigate the modification of the flow structure by the plasma actuator, the flow field was examined non-intrusively by particle image velocimetry measurements in the hump model experiment and by a hot film probe in the compressor cascade experiment. The results showed that the plasma actuator could be effective in controlling the flow separation both over the hump and in the compressor cascade when the incoming velocity was low. As the incoming velocity increased, the plasma actuator was less effective. It is urgent to enhance the intensity of the plasma actuator for its better application. Methods to increase the intensity of plasma actuator were also studied.

Investigation of the interaction between NS-DBD plasma-induced vortexes and separated flow over a swept wing

The effect of nanosecond pulsed dielectric barrier discharge(NS-DBD) plasma flow separation control is closely related to the actuation frequency,because it involves the interaction between plasma-induced vortexes and separated flow.In order to study the mechanism of NS-DBD plasma flow separation control over a swept wing,especially the influence of the actuation frequency,at first,experimental studies of the actuation frequencies at 100 Hz are conducted to validate the numerical simulation method.Then,numerical studies of different actuation frequencies which are 50 Hz,100 Hz,160 Hz,200 Hz,500 Hz,and 1000 Hz,respectively are conducted.The interaction between the plasma-induced vortexes and the separated flow is analyzed.Results show that there is a range of the actuation frequency which includes the frequency(160 Hz) calculated by the average aerodynamic chord length to make the control effect good,but when the actuation frequencies are too low(50 Hz) or too high(1000 Hz),the control effect will get worse.The former is because plasmainduced vortexes disappear in a period within an actuation cycle;the latter is because plasma-induced vortexes cannot develop completely,resulting in a weak vortex intensity.

Experimental Investigation on Aerodynamic Control of a Wing with Distributed Plasma Actuators

Experimental investigation of active flow control on the aerodynamic performance of a flying wing is conducted. Subsonic wind tunnel tests are performed using a model of a 35° swept flying wing with an nanosecond dielectric barrier discharge （NS-DBD） plasma actuator, which is installed symmetrically on the wing leading edge. The lift and drag coefficient, lift-to- drag ratio and pitching moment coefficient are tested by a six-component force balance for a range of angles of attack. The results indicate that a 44.5% increase in the lift coefficient, a 34.2% decrease in the drag coefficient and a 22.4% increase in the maximum lift-to-drag ratio can be achieved as compared with the baseline case. The effects of several actuation parameters are also investigated, and the results show that control efficiency demonstrates a strong dependence on actuation location and frequency. Furthermore, we highlight the use of distributed plasma actuators at the leading edge to enhance the aerodynamic performance, giving insight into the different mechanism of separation control and vortex control, which shows tremendous potential in practical flow control for a broad range of angles of attack.

NUMERICAL STUDY ON THE FLOW AROUND A CIRCULAR CYLINDER WITH SURFACE SUCTION OR BLOWING USING VORTICITY-VELOCITY METHOD

A vorticity-velocity method was used to study the incompressible viscous fluid flow around a circular cylinder with surface suction or blowing. The resulted high order implicit difference equations were effeciently solved by the modified incomplete LU decomposition conjugate gradient scheme ( MILU-CG). The effects of surface suction or blowing' s position and strength on the vortex structures in the cylinder wake, as well as on the drag and lift forces at Reynoldes number Re = 100 were investigated numerically. The results show that the suction on the shoulder of the cylinder or the blowing on the rear of the cylinder can effeciently suppress the asymmetry of the vortex wake in the transverse direction and greatly reduce the lift force; the suction on the shoulder of the cylinder, when its strength is properly chosen, can reduce the drag force significantly, too.

DOUBLE LOOP ACTIVE VIBRATION CONTROL OF PNEUMATIC ISOLATOR WITH TWO SEPARATE CHAMBERS

A newly designed pneumatic spring with two separate chambers is promoted and double-loop active control is introduced to overcome the following drawbacks of passive pneumatic isolation： ① The low frequency resonances introduced into the system; ② Conflict between lower isolation frequency and stiffness high enough to limit quasi-static stroke;③ Inconsistent isolation level with different force load. The design of two separate chambers is for the purpose of tuning support frequency and force independently and each chamber is controlled by a different valve. The inner one of double-loop structure is pressure control, and in order to obtain good performance, nonlinearities compensation and motion flow rate compensation （MFRC） are added besides the basic cascade compensation, and the influence of tube length is studied. The outer loop has two functions： one is to eliminate the resonance caused by isolation support and to broaden the isolation frequency band by payload velocity feedback and base velocity feed forward, and the other is to tune support force and support stiffness simultaneously and independently, which means the support force will have no effect on support stiffness. Theoretical analysis and experiment results show that the three drawbacks are overcome simultaneously.

Parametric analyses for synthetic jet control on separation and stall over rotor airfoil

Numerical simulations are performed to investigate the effects of synthetic jet control on separation and stall over rotor airfoils. The preconditioned and unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations coupled with a k x shear stream transport turbulence model are employed to accomplish the flowfield simulation of rotor airfoils under jet control. Additionally,a velocity boundary condition modeled by a sinusoidal function is developed to fulfill the perturbation effect of periodic jets. The validity of the present CFD procedure is evaluated by the simulated results of an isolated synthetic jet and the jet control case for airfoil NACA0015. Then, parametric analyses are conducted specifically for an OA213 rotor airfoil to investigate the effects of jet parameters（forcing frequency, jet location and momentum coefficient, jet direction, and distribution of jet arrays） on the control effect of the aerodynamic characteristics of a rotor airfoil. Preliminary results indicate that the efficiency of jet control can be improved with specific frequencies（the best lift-drag ratio at F＋= 2.0） and jet angles（40 or 75） when the jets are located near the separation point of the rotor airfoil. Furthermore, as a result of a suitable combination of jet arrays, the lift coefficient of the airfoil can be improved by nearly 100%, and the corresponding drag coefficient decreased by26.5% in comparison with the single point control case.

Comparison of aerodynamic characteristics between a novel highly loaded injected blade with curvature induced pressure-recovery concept and one with conventional design

This paper introduces a novel design method of highly loaded compressor blades with air injection.CFD methods were firstly validated with existing data and then used to develop and investigate the new method based on a compressor cascade.A compressor blade is designed with a curvature induced pressure-recovery concept.A rapid drop of the local curvature on the blade suction surface results in a sudden increase in the local pressure,which is referred to as a curvature induced ‘Shock＇.An injection slot downstream from the ‘Shock＇ is used to prevent ‘Shock＇ induced separation,thus reducing the loss.As a result,the compressor blade achieves high loading with acceptable loss.First,the design concept based on a 2D compressor blade profile is introduced.Then,a 3D cascade model is investigated with uniform air injection along the span.The effects of the incidence are also investigated on emphasis in the current study.The mid-span flow field of the 3D injected cascade shows excellent agreement with the 2D designed flow field.For the highly loaded cascade without injection,the flow separates immediately downstream from the ‘Shock＇;the initial location of separation shows little change in a large incidence range.Thus air injection with the same injection configuration effectively removes the flow separation downstream from the curvature induced ‘Shock＇ and reduces the size of the separation zone at different incidences.Near the endwall,the flow within the incoming passage vortex mixes with the injected flow.As a result,the size of the passage vortex reduces significantly downstream from the injection slot.After air injection,the loss coefficient along spanwise reduces significantly and the flow turning angle increases.