Control of Separated Flow on a NACA 0015 Airfoil using Three-Dimensional Plasma Actuator

Abstract

Experimental study has been conducted to determine the effect of a three-dimensional plasma actuator, whose exposed and encapsulated electrodes geometry are designed with serrated configuration, on a NACA 0015 airfoil for flow separation control. The electrodes of the serrated configuration were arranged in a manner that the sawtooth are opposite to each other and horizontally separated by a dielectric material, hence the electrode gap is modified along the spanwise direction. In order to understand the characteristics of the threedimensional flow originated from the plasma actuator, measurements including the vorticity, longitudinal velocity and induced flow angle generated by the serrated configuration, were conducted in the absence of free air-stream using PIV technique. The mechanisms of vorticity generation for the plasma actuator are discussed. Lift and drag measurements on the airfoil were conducted at low Reynolds number (77 × × × × 10 3 ). The plasma actuator showed effective control authority by generating both the streamwise flow and the spanwise-periodic vorticity, and it was found to lead to stall delay by 5° and increase in lift coefficient by about 6%. Nomenclatureheight of the sawtooth U ∞ = freestream velocity V p = applied voltage w = width of the sawtooth x = streamwise direction y = lateral direction z = spanwise direction α = angle-of-attack ω = vorticity 1 Associate Professor, Institute of Turbulence-Noise-Vibration Interactions and Control, Shenzhen Graduate School,

Investigation on 3D flow field induced by a plasma actuator with serrated electrode

“…Numerous researchers recently deployed alternative electrode configurations to improve the control authority of plasma actuators, as these actuators can induce 3D flow structures, such as plasma synthetic jet and spatially distributed jet, which can postpone/suppress flow separation or excite inherent flow instabilities for effective flow control [14,15]. Among these methods, previous studies reported that plasma actuators using serrated electrode is a promising method with good development potential.…”