Turbulent boundary layer control with DBD plasma actuators

The flat-plate turbulent boundary layer at Reτ=1140 is manipulated using a spanwise array of bidirectional dielectric barrier discharge(DBD)plasma actuators.Based on the features of no moving mechanical parts in the DBD plasma control technology and hot-wire anemometer velocity measurements,a novel convenient method of local drag reduction(DR)measurement is proposed by measuring the single-point velocity within the linear region of the viscous sublayer.We analyze the premise of using the method,and the maximum effective measurement range of-73.1%<DR<42.2%is obtained according to the experimental environment in this work.The local drag decreases downstream of the center of two adjacent upper electrodes and increases downstream of the upper electrodes.The magnitude of the local DR increases with increasing voltage and decreases as it moves away from the actuators.For the spanwise position in between,the streamwise distribution of the local DR is very dependent on the voltage.The variable-interval time-average detection results reveal that all bursting intensities are reduced compared to the baseline,and the amount of reduction is comparable to the absolute values of the local DR.Compared with previous results,we infer that the control mechanism is that many meandering streaks are combined together into single stabilized streaks.

Turbulent boundary layer control with a spanwise array of DBD plasma actuators

The turbulent boundary layer control on NACA 0012 airfoil with Mach number ranging from 0.3 to 0.5 by a spanwise array of dielectric barrier discharge(DBD)plasma actuators by hot-film sensor technology is investigated.Due to temperature change mainly caused through heat produced along with plasma will lead to measurement error of shear stress measured by hot-film sensor,the correction method that takes account of the change measured by another sensor is used and works well.In order to achieve the value of shear stress change,we combine computational fluid dynamics computation with experiment to calibrate the hot-film sensor.To test the stability of the hot-film sensor,seven repeated measurements of shear stress at Ma=0.3 are conducted and show that confidence interval of hot-film sensor measurement is from−0.18 to 0.18 Pa and the root mean square is 0.11 Pa giving a relative error 0.5%over all Mach numbers in this experiment.The research on the turbulent boundary layer control with DBD plasma actuators demonstrates that the control makes shear stress increase by about 6%over the three Mach numbers,which is thought to be reliable through comparing it with the relative error 0.5%,and the value is hardly affected by burst frequency and excitation voltage.

Turbulent drag reduction by spanwise slot blowing pulsed plasma actuation

This work studies the turbulent drag reduction(TDR)effect of a flat plate model using a spanwise slot blowing pulsed plasma actuator(SBP-PA).Wind tunnel experiments are carried out under a Reynolds number of 1.445×10^(4).Using a hot-wire anemometer and an electrical data acquisition system,the influences of millisecond pulsed plasma actuation with different burst frequencies and duty cycles on the microscale coherent structures near the wall of the turbulent boundary layer(TBL)are studied.The experimental results show that the SBP-PA can effectively reduce the frictional drag of the TBL.When the duty cycle exceeds 30%,the TDR rate is greater than 11%,and the optimal drag reduction rate of 13.69%is obtained at a duty cycle of 50%.Furthermore,optimizing the electrical parameters reveals that increasing the burst frequency significantly reduces the velocity distribution in the logarithmic region of the TBL.When the normalized burst frequency reaches f+=2πf_(p)d/U_(∞)=7.196,the optimal TDR effectiveness is 16.97%,indicating a resonance phenomenon between the pulsed plasma actuation and the microscale coherent structures near the wall.Therefore,reasonably selecting the electrical parameters of the plasma actuator is expected to significantly improve the TDR effect.

Tomographic PIV investigation on coherent vortex structures over shark-skin-inspired drag-reducing riblets

Nature has shown us that the microstructure of the skin of fast-swimming sharks in the ocean can reduce the skin friction drag due to the well-known shark-skin effect.In the present study,the effect of shark-skin-inspired riblets on coherent vortex structures in a turbulent boundary layer（TBL） is investigated.This is done by means of tomographic particle image velocimetry（TPIV） measurements in channel fl ws over an acrylic plate of drag-reducing riblets at a friction Reynolds number of 190.The turbulent fl ws over drag-reducing riblets are verifie by a planar time-resolved particle image velocimetry（TRPIV） system initially,and then the TPIV measurements are performed.Two-dimensional（2D） experimental results with a dragreduction rate of around 4.81% are clearly visible over triangle riblets with a peak-to-peak spacing s＋of 14,indicating from the drag-reducing performance that the buffer layer within the TBL has thickened;the logarithmic law region has shifted upward and the Reynolds shear stress decreased.A comparison of the spatial topological distributions of the spanwise vorticity of coherent vortex structures extracted at different wall-normal heights through the improved quadrant splitting method shows that riblets weaken the amplitudesof the spanwise vorticity when ejection（Q2） and sweep（Q4） events occur at the near wall,having the greatest effect on Q4 events in particular.The so-called quadrupole statistical model for coherent structures in the whole TBL is verified Meanwhile,their spatial conditional-averaged topological shapes and the spatial scales of quadrupole coherent vortex structures as a whole in the overlying turbulent fl w over riblets are changed,suggesting that the riblets dampen the momentum and energy exchange between the regions of near-wall and outer portion of the TBL by depressing the bursting events（Q2 and Q4）,thereby reducing the skin friction drag.

Mechanism of drag reduction by spanwise oscillating Lorentz force in turbulent channel flow

Numerical simulations and experimental research are both carried out to investigate the controlled effect of spanwise oscillating Lorentz force on a turbulent channel flow. The variations of the streaks and the skin friction drag are obtained through the PIV system and the drag measurement system, respectively. The flow field in the near-wall region is shown through direct numerical simulations utilizing spectral method. The experimental results are consistent with the numerical simulation results qualitatively, and both the results indicate that the streaks are tilted into the spanwise direction and the drag reduction utilizing spanwise oscillating Lorentz forces can be realized. The numerical simulation results reveal more detail of the drag reduction mechanism which can be explained, since the spanwise vorticity generated from the interaction between the induced Stokes layer and intrinsic turbulent flow in the near-wall region can make the longitudinal vortices tilt and oscillate, and leads to turbulence suppression and drag reduction.

The influence of long-range links on spiral waves and their application for control

The influence of long-range links on spiral waves in an excitable medium has been investigated. Spatiotemporal dynamics in an excitable small-world network transform remarkably when we increase the long-range connection probability P. Spiral waves with few perturbations, broken spiral waves, pseudo spiral turbulence, synchronous oscillations, and homogeneous rest state are discovered under different network structures. Tip number is selected to detect non-equilibrium phase transition between different spatiotemporal patterns. The Kuramoto order parameter is used to identify these patterns and explain the emergence of the rest state. Finally, we use long-range links to successfully control spiral waves and spiral turbulence.

Drag reduction via turbulent boundary layer flow control

Turbulent boundary layer control(TBLC) for skin-friction drag reduction is a relatively new technology made possible through the advances in computational-simulation capabilities,which have improved the understanding of the flow structures of turbulence.Advances in micro-electronic technology have enabled the fabrication of active device systems able to manipulating these structures.The combination of simulation,understanding and micro-actuation technologies offers new opportunities to significantly decrease drag,and by doing so,to increase fuel efficiency of future aircraft.The literature review that follows shows that the application of active control turbulent skin-friction drag reduction is considered of prime importance by industry,even though it is still at a low technology readiness level(TRL).This review presents the state of the art of different technologies oriented to the active and passive control for turbulent skin-friction drag reduction and contributes to the improvement of these technologies.

On the hydrodynamics of hydraulic machinery and flow control

Hydraulic machinery mainly includes turbine and pump, which is closely related to national economy and people＇s livelihood involving aerospace industry, marine engineering, hydropower engineering, petroleum industry, chemical industry, mining industry, biomedical engineering, environmental engineering, agricultural water-soil engineering, etc.. The internal flow of hydraulic machinery is extremely complex, and its characteristics can be summarized as high Reynolds number, multi-scales, inhomogeneous and vortex-dominant unsteady turbulence which interact with the rotating dynamic boundary（rotor blade）. Based on the analysis of the internal flow characteristics of hydraulic machinery, the author and his research team successively proposed a rotation correction model, a curvature corrected filter-based model, a scalable detached eddy simulation method, and a non-linear hybrid RANS/LES turbulence model to capture unsteady flow structures and then predict hydraulic performance and dynamic characteristics more accurately. According to the analysis on the internal flow, the corresponding flow control measures were put forward. It was verified by experiments that these methods could significantly improve the hydraulic performance, anti-cavitation performance and dynamic characteristics（pressure pulsation and vibration） of hydraulic machinery in a certain range of operating conditions. In addition, the mechanism how flow control measures influence internal flow was analyzed in depth, aiming at finding a feasible and effective way to improve hydraulic performance, anti-cavitation performance and dynamic characteristics of hydraulic machinery.