Flow Reattachment Using Synthetic Jet Actuation on a Low-Reynolds-Number Airfoil

Wind-tunnel experiments are used to study the effect of momentum coefficient and excitation frequency on flow separation using synthetic jet actuation. Experiments are conducted on a NACA 0025 airfoil at a chord-based Reynolds number of 100,000 and angle of attack of 10 deg. The actuator is located...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:AIAA journal 2015-07, Vol.53 (7), p.2005-2014
Main Authors: Feero, Mark A, Goodfellow, Sebastian D, Lavoie, Philippe, Sullivan, Pierre E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actuation
Actuators
Aerodynamics
Aerospace engineering
Airfoils
Angle of attack
Boundary layers
Excitation
Flow separation
Flow stability
Fluid dynamics
Fluid flow
Instability
Momentum
Reynolds number
Separation
Shear layers
Stability
Synthetic jets
Vortex shedding
Vortices
Wakes
Wind tunnel testing
Wind tunnels
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Summary:Wind-tunnel experiments are used to study the effect of momentum coefficient and excitation frequency on flow separation using synthetic jet actuation. Experiments are conducted on a NACA 0025 airfoil at a chord-based Reynolds number of 100,000 and angle of attack of 10 deg. The actuator is located near the leading edge, downstream of the mean separation location. High-frequency excitation is able to reattach the flow and eliminate the large-scale vortex shedding in the wake, leading to a decrease in drag of approximately 45%. Low-frequency excitation is employed to target the instabilities associated with the separated shear layer and vortex shedding in the wake. Excitation of the wake instability also causes the flow to reattach; however, it leads to organization of the large-scale vortex shedding. By forcing the boundary layer at the frequency of the shear-layer instability, the threshold momentum required to reattach the flow is an order of magnitude smaller as compared with high-frequency excitation, and the large-scale vortex shedding is suppressed.
ISSN:0001-1452
1533-385X
DOI:10.2514/1.J053605