Control of the corner separation in a compressor cascade by steady and unsteady plasma aerodynamic actuation

This paper reports experimental results on using steady and unsteady plasma aerodynamic actuation to control the corner separation, which forms over the suction surface and end wall corner of a compressor cascade blade passage. Total pressure recovery coefficient distribution was adopted to evaluate the corner separation. Corner separation causes significant total pressure loss even when the angle of attack is 0°. Both steady and unsteady plasma aerodynamic actuations suppress the corner separation effectively. The control effect obtained by the electrode pair at 25% chord length is as effective as that obtained by all four electrode pairs. Increasing the applied voltage improves the control effect while it augments the power requirement. Increasing the Reynolds number or the angle of attack makes the corner separation more difficult to control. The unsteady actuation is much more effective and requires less power due to the coupling between the unsteady actuation and the separated flow. Duty cycle and excitation frequency are key parameters in unsteady plasma flow control. There are thresholds in both the duty cycle and the excitation frequency, above which the control effect saturates. The maximum relative reduction in total pressure loss coefficient achieved is up to 28% at 70% blade span. The obvious difference between steady and unsteady actuation may be that wall jet governs the flow control effect of steady actuation, while much more vortex induced by unsteady actuation is the reason for better control effect.     

An experimental study of the under-expanded swirling jet with secondary coaxial stream

The present study addresses experimental results for investigating the details of the near field flow characteristics produced in an under-expanded, dual, coaxial, swirling jet. The under-expanded swirling jet is discharged from a sonic inner nozzle. An outer annular nozzle produces co- and counter-swirling streams relative to the inner primary swirling jet. The interaction between both the outer annular swirling stream and inner under-expanded swirling jet is quantified by impact and static pressure measurements, and visualized by using the shadowgraph method. Experiments are performed for several different pressure ratios. The results show that the outer secondary co-swirling jet significantly changes the structure of the inner under-expanded swirling jet, such as the shock structures and the recirculation region generated at the jet axis. The effect of the outer secondary stream on the major structures of the inner primary swirling jet is strongly dependent on the pressure ratio of the inner swirling jet, regardless of the swirl direction of the outer stream.Received: 17 May 2004, Accepted: 27 September 2004, Published online: 26 November 2004[/PUBLISHED]H.D. Kim: Correspondence to     

On factors influencing arc filament plasma actuator performance in control of high speed jets

Localized arc filament plasma actuators (LAFPAs) have been developed and used at The Gas Dynamics and Turbulence Laboratory for the purpose of controlling high-speed and high Reynolds number jets. The ability of LAFPAs for use in both subsonic and supersonic jets has been explored, and experiments to date have shown that these actuators have significant potential for mixing enhancement and noise control applications. While it has been established that the actuators manipulate instabilities of the jet, the exact nature of how the actuation couples to the flow is still unclear. All of the results previously reported have been based on a nozzle extension that has an azimuthal groove of 1 mm width and 0.5 mm depth along the inner surface approximately 1 mm upstream of nozzle extension exit. The ring groove was initially added to shield the plasma arcs from the high-momentum flow. However, the effect of the ring groove on the actuation mechanism is not known. To explore this effect, a new nozzle extension is designed, which relocates the actuators to the nozzle extension face and eliminates the ring groove. Schlieren images, particle image velocimetry and acoustic results of a Mach 0.9 jet of Reynolds number ~6.1 × 10⁵ show similar trends and magnitudes with and without a ring groove. Thus, it is concluded that the ring groove does not play a primary role in the LAFPAs’ control mechanism. Furthermore, the effect of the duty cycle of the actuator input pulse on the LAFPAs’ control authority is investigated. The results show that the minimum duty cycle that provides complete plasma formation has the largest control over the jet.     

Effect of novel synthetic jet on wake vortex shedding modes of a circular cylinder

A novel actuator signal achieved by changing the ratio of the suction duty cycle to the blowing duty cycle is adopted to enhance the control effect of the synthetic jet for the flow around a circular cylinder. The suction duty cycle factor k defined as the ratio between the time duration of the suction cycle and the blowing cycle and the equivalent momentum coefficient C_μ are introduced as the determining parameters. The synthetic jet is positioned at the rear stagnation point in order to introduce symmetric perturbations upon the flow field. The proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) technique is applied for the analysis of the spanwise vorticity field. Increasing the suction duty cycle factor, the momentum coefficient is enhanced, and thus a stronger and larger scale synthetic jet vortex pair with a higher convection velocity is generated. The synthetic jet vortex pair interacts with the spanwise vorticity shear layers behind both sides of the cylinder, resulting in the variations of the wake vortex shedding modes at Re=950: for k=0.25, C_μ=0.148, vortex synchronization at the subharmonic excitation frequency with antisymmetric shedding mode; for 0.50≤k≤1.00, 0.213≤C_μ≤0.378, vortex synchronization at the excitation frequency with the symmetric or antisymmetric shedding modes; for 2.00≤k≤4.00, 0.850≤C_μ≤2.362, vortex synchronization at the excitation frequency with symmetric shedding mode. Hence, the control effect of the synthetic jet upon the wake vortex of a circular cylinder can be enhanced by increasing the suction duty cycle factor so as to increase the momentum coefficient. This is also validated at a higher Reynolds number Re=1600.     

Modified flapping jet for increased jet spreading using synthetic jets

The present paper is an experimental investigation, using a PIV system, on modified rectangular jet flow co-flowing with a pair of synthetic jets placed symmetrically with respect to the geometric centerline of the main flow. The objective was to determine the optimal forcing conditions that would result in jet spreading beyond what would be obtained in a simple flapped jet. The main jet had an exit Re_h = 36,000, based on the slot height, h. The synthetic jets were operated in a periodic manner with a periodic momentum coefficient of about 3.3% and at a frequency of the main jet preferred mode. A short, wide angle diffuser of half angle of about 45° was attached to the main jet. Generally for the vectored jet, much of the flow features found here resembled those reported in the literature except that the deflection angle in this study increased with downstream distances inside the diffuser and then remained roughly unchanged thereafter. Larger jet spreading was achieved when the main jet was subjected to simultaneous actuation of the synthetic jets but the flow did not achieve the initial jet spreading that was observed in the vectored jet. Further jet spreading was achieved when the synthetic jets were alternately actuated in which each synthetic jet was actuated for a number of cycles before switching. This technique allowed the jet to flap across the flow between transverse positions larger than what would be obtained in a simple flip-flop jet. Under the present flow geometry and Reynolds number, it was found that when the ratio f_s/f_al, where f_s is the synthetic actuation frequency and f_al is the alternating frequency, was larger than 10, the mean streamwise velocity of the main jet had two peaks symmetrically placed with respect to the jet axis and the jet had the appearance of flowing into two streams each moving nearly parallel to the diffuser wall. For a value of f_s/f_al of about 10, the optimal value in this study, the desired flow properties were achieved in that, the mean velocity was nearly uniform with an increase in the jet width compared to the simultaneous actuations, and the jet flapping was more effective in redistributing and homogenizing the turbulent kinetic energy across the main jet.     

A PLIF and PIV study of liquid mixing enhanced by a lateral synthetic jet pair

In this paper, enhancement of mixing between two water streams of the same flow rate in a planar channel by means of a lateral synthetic jet pair is studied at a net flow Reynolds number of 83 using PLIF and PIV. The synthetic jet pair is operated 180° out-of-phase at a range of actuation frequencies and displacements, with the latter being characterized by the dimensionless stroke length. The extent of mixing is evaluated using PLIF data at a location further downstream in the mixing channel. It is found that at a fixed actuation frequency a higher dimensionless stroke length produces a better mixing, and as the actuation frequency increases a lower dimensionless stroke length is required to achieve a given mixing degree. At a sufficiently high frequency or dimensionless stroke length, a nearly homogenous mixing with a mixing degree greater than 0.9 can be obtained. A functional relationship between actuation frequency and dimensionless stroke length is also obtained by best fitting the experimental data, which can be used for selecting the synthetic jet operating conditions to ensure a good mixing. Furthermore, both PLIF and PIV results show that each synthetic jet actuation cycle produce two opposing vortex pairs, which play an important role in prompting mixing between the two fluid streams. The excellent mixing obtained at a high frequency or a high dimensionless stroke length is found to be largely caused by a strong interaction between these opposing vortex pairs.     

Effect of variable duty cycle flow pulsations on heat transfer enhancement for an impinging air jet

A series of experiments has been conducted in which a pulsed air jet is impinged upon a heated surface for the purpose of enhancing heat transfer relative to the corresponding steady air jet. Traditional variables such as jet to plate spacing, Reynolds number, and pulse frequency have been investigated. One additional flow variable – the duty cycle – representing the ratio of pulse cycle on-time to total cycle time is introduced and shown to be significant in determining the level of heat transfer enhancement. Specifically, heat transfer enhancement exceeding 50% is shown for a variety of operating conditions. In each case, the duty cycle producing the best heat transfer is shown to depend upon each of the other flow parameters. Recommendations are made for further experimentation into optimizing the duty cycle parameter for any particular application.     

NUMERICAL STUDY ON DYNAMIC STALL FLOW CONTROL FOR WIND TURBINE AIRFOIL USING PLASMA ACTUATOR 1)

针对动态失速引起的风力机翼型气动性能恶化的问题,本文基于动网格和滑移网格技术, 开展了大涡模拟数值计算研究,探索了非定常脉冲等离子体的动态流动控制机理. 结果表明,等离子体气动激励能够有效控制翼型动态失速, 改善平均和瞬态气动力,减小力矩负峰值和迟滞环面积. 压力分布在等离子体施加范围内出现了负压"凸起",上翼面吸力峰值明显增大.脉冲频率和占空比这两个非定常控制参数对流动控制影响显著,无因次脉冲频率为1.5时等离子体控制效果较好,占空比为0.8时即可接近连续工作模式下的气动收益. 翼型深失速状态,等离子体促使流动分离位置明显向后缘移动, 抵抗了大尺度动态失速涡的发生,分离涡结构破碎耗散、重新附着, 涡流影响范围减小; 浅失速状态,等离子体激励具有较强的剪切层操纵能力, 诱导了翼型边界层提前转捩,促进了与主流的动量掺混. 等离子体气动激励诱导出前缘附近贴体翼面"涡簇",起到了虚拟气动外形的作用.不同尺度、频域的动态涡结构与等离子体气动激励的非线性、强耦合作用导致了气动力/力矩的谐波振荡.     

Duty cycle and directional jet effects of a plasma actuator on the flow control around a NACA0015 airfoil

This paper reports on the effects of a series of fluid-dynamic dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators on a NACA0015 airfoil at high angle of attack. A set of jet actuators able to produce plasma jets with different directions (vectoring effect) and operated at different on/off duty cycle frequencies are used. The experiments are performed in a wind tunnel facility. The vectorized jet and the transient of the flow induced by unsteady duty cycle operation of each actuator are examined and the effectiveness of the actuator to recover stall condition in the range of Reynolds numbers between 1.0 × 10⁵ and 5.0 × 10⁵ (based on airfoil chord), is investigated. The actuator placed on the leading edge of the airfoil presents the most effective stall recovery. No significant effects can be observed for different orientations of the jet. An increase of the stall recovery is detected when the actuator is operated in unsteady operation mode. Moreover, the frequency of the on/off duty cycle that maximizes the stall recovery is found to be a function of the free stream velocity. This frequency seems to scale with the boundary layer thickness at the position of the actuator. A lift coefficient increase at low free stream velocities appears to linearly depend on the supply voltage.     

Synthetic jet control of separation in the flow over a circular cylinder

A synthetic jet generated by a non-sinusoidal waveform is used to control flow separation around a circular cylinder at Reynolds number 950. The synthetic jet is positioned at the rear stagnation point. The suction duty cycle factor defined as the ratio of the time duration of the suction cycle to the blowing cycle is introduced as the determining parameter. Increasing the suction duty cycle factor, the exit velocity and entrainment effect of the synthetic jet are enhanced, flow separation is delayed, and drag reduction by up to 29?% is achieved. Different mechanisms for separation control during both the blowing cycle and the suction cycle have been revealed. It is suggested that a better control effect can be obtained during the blowing cycle.     

Thermal modulation and breakup of liquid jets

In this paper, we study the breakup behavior of Newtonian liquid and non‐Newtonian liquid jets with an arbitrary variation surface tension imposed along its length. The effect of duty cycle, fluid properties, and the various profiles of the surface tension is investigated. It is shown that the breakup behavior of a jet can be constructed by using the Fourier expansion of the surface tension profile. When the dimensionless wavenumber k is larger than 0.5, the jet breakup behavior is determined by the lowest frequency of the Fourier series expansion of the surface tension profile. As k decreases, higher frequency Fourier modes come to play. In general, for k between, 1∕(n+ 1) and 1∕n,n Fourier modes are needed to determine the jet breakup behavior. The current nonlinear model differs from the existing linear slender jet model in the literature in several ways. While the principle of superposition is valid for the linear model, it is not generally valid for the current nonlinear model. For the linear model, the jet will never break up when the wavenumber is larger than 1. The current model, however, shows clearly that the jet can indeed break up when the wavenumber is larger than 1. Furthermore, the current nonlinear model predicts a breakup time substantially higher than that from the linear model.Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental Investigation of Nozzle Exit Reflector Effect on Supersonic Jet

The present study describes an experimental work to investigate the effect of a nozzle exit reflector on a supersonic jet that is discharged from a convergent–divergent nozzle with a design Mach number of 2.0. An annular reflector is installed at the nozzle exit and its diameter is varied. A high-quality spark schlieren optical system is used to visualize detailed jet structures with and without the reflector. Impact pressure measurement using a pitot probe is also carried out to quantify the reflector’s effect on the supersonic jet which is in the range from an over-expanded to a moderately under-expanded state. The results obtained show that for over-expanded jets, the reflector substantially increases the jet spreading rate and reduces the supersonic length of the jet, compared with moderately under-expanded jets. The reflector’s effect appears more significant in imperfectly expanded jets that have strong shock cell structures, but is negligible in correctly expanded jet.     

风力机翼型动态失速等离子体流动控制数值研究

针对动态失速引起的风力机翼型气动性能恶化的问题,本文基于动网格和滑移网格技术, 开展了大涡模拟数值计算研究,探索了非定常脉冲等离子体的动态流动控制机理. 结果表明,等离子体气动激励能够有效控制翼型动态失速, 改善平均和瞬态气动力,减小力矩负峰值和迟滞环面积. 压力分布在等离子体施加范围内出现了负压"凸起",上翼面吸力峰值明显增大.脉冲频率和占空比这两个非定常控制参数对流动控制影响显著,无因次脉冲频率为1.5时等离子体控制效果较好,占空比为0.8时即可接近连续工作模式下的气动收益. 翼型深失速状态,等离子体促使流动分离位置明显向后缘移动, 抵抗了大尺度动态失速涡的发生,分离涡结构破碎耗散、重新附着, 涡流影响范围减小; 浅失速状态,等离子体激励具有较强的剪切层操纵能力, 诱导了翼型边界层提前转捩,促进了与主流的动量掺混. 等离子体气动激励诱导出前缘附近贴体翼面"涡簇",起到了虚拟气动外形的作用.不同尺度、频域的动态涡结构与等离子体气动激励的非线性、强耦合作用导致了气动力/力矩的谐波振荡.      

一种三阶有限体积法及其在欠膨胀射流激波结构数值模拟中的应用

以喷管出口欠膨胀射流为研究对象,在Lagrange坐标系下建立欠膨胀射流二维积分形式的流动方程。通过在单元交接面处进行三阶ENO(essentially nonoscillatory)格式插值,构造得到一种适用于求解该方程的三阶ENO有限体积法。采用该格式对一维Sod激波管算例和喷管出口欠膨胀射流进行数值计算。计算结果表明,该方法具有高精度、基本无振荡的特点,能很好地捕捉包含激波、滑移线以及三波交点等复杂流场波系结构。计算得到的波系结构中马赫盘的位置与实验结果吻合很好,相对误差小于1.1%。     

LES and RANS modelling of under-expanded jets with application to gaseous fuel direct injection for advanced propulsion systems

A density-based solver with the classical fourth-order accurate Runge-Kutta temporal discretization scheme was developed and applied to study under-expanded jets issued through millimetre-size nozzles for applications in high-pressure direct-injection (DI) gaseous-fuelled propulsion systems. Both large eddy simulation (LES) and Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) turbulence modelling techniques were used to evaluate the performance of the new code. The computational results were compared both quantitatively and qualitatively against available data from the literature. After initial evaluation of the code, the computational framework was used in conjunction with RANS modelling (k-ω SST) to investigate the effect of nozzle exit geometry on the characteristics of gaseous jets issued from millimetre-size nozzles. Cylindrical nozzles with various length to diameter ratios, namely 5, 10 and 20, in addition to a diverging conical nozzle, were studied. This study is believed to be the first to provide a direct comparison between RANS and LES within the context of nozzle exit profiling for advanced high-pressure injection systems with the formation of under-expanded jets. It was found that reducing the length of the straight section of the nozzle by 50% resulted in a slightly higher level of under-expansion (∼2.6% higher pressure at the nozzle exit) and ∼1% higher mass flow rate. It was also found that a nozzle with 50% shorter length resulted in ∼6% longer jet penetration length. At a constant nozzle pressure ratio (NPR), a lower nozzle length to diameter ratio resulted in a noticeably higher jet penetration. It was found that with a diverging conical nozzle, a fairly higher penetration length could be achieved if an under-expanded jet formed downstream of the nozzle exit compared to a jet issued from a straight nozzle with the same NPR. This was attributed to the radial restriction of the flow and consequently formation of a relatively smaller reflected shock angle. With the conical nozzle used in this study and a 30 bar injection pressure, an under-expanded hydrogen jet exhibited ∼60% higher penetration length compared to an under-expanded nitrogen jet at 100 μs after start of injection. Moreover, the former jet exhibited ∼22% higher penetration compared to a nitrogen jet issued through the conical profile with 150 bar injection pressure.     

Further Examination of the Mechanism of Round Synthetic Jets in Delaying Turbulent Flow Separation

This paper reports the findings from a further study of the 2D and stereo PIV data obtained in the interaction zone between the separated turbulent boundary layer over a 2D ramp and round synthetic jets by the authors. The synthetic jets are operated at two actuation frequencies with one being close to the natural frequency of the separated shear layer. Both the triple decomposition technique and Q-criterion are employed to investigate how the separated flow responds to the passage of different parts of the vortical structures produced by the synthetic jets during an actuation cycle at different synthetic jet operating conditions. An attempt is made to explain the observed differences in the ways that the separated flow responds to the actuation of synthetic jets at the two actuation frequencies. A better understanding of the mechanism of flow separation delay using round synthetic jets is obtained, leading to a more complete physical model describing the interaction mechanism.     

Aerodynamic flow vectoring of a wake using asymmetric synthetic jet actuation

This paper reports an experimental investigation on the wake of a blunt-based, flat plate subjected to aerodynamic flow vectoring using asymmetric synthetic jet actuation. Wake vectoring was achieved using a synthetic jet placed at the model base 2.5?mm from the upper corner. The wake Reynolds number based on the plate thickness was 7,200. The synthetic jet actuation frequency was selected to be about 75?% the vortex shedding frequency of the natural wake. At this actuation frequency, the synthetic jet delivered a periodic flow with a momentum coefficient, C _??, of up to 62?%. Simultaneous measurements of the streamwise and transverse components of the velocity were performed using particle image velocimetry (PIV) in the near wake. The results suggested that for significant wake vectoring, vortex shedding must be suppressed first. Under the flow conditions cited above, C _?? values in the range of 10?C20?% were required. The wake vectoring angle seemed to asymptote to a constant value of about 30° at downstream distances, x/h, larger than 4 for C _?? values ranging between 24 and 64?%. The phase-averaged vorticity contours and the phase-averaged normal lift force showed that most of the wake vectoring is produced during the suction phase of the actuation, while the blowing phase was mostly responsible for vortex shedding suppression.     

Active control of supersonic impingement tones using steady and pulsed microjets

In recent years, it has been demonstrated that direct microjet injection into the shear layer of the main jet disrupts the feedback loop inherent in high speed impinging jet flows, thereby significantly reducing the adverse effects. The amount of noise reduced by microjet actuation is known to be dependent on nozzle operating conditions. In this paper, two active control strategies using microjets are suggested to maintain a uniform, reliable, and optimal reduction of these tones over the entire range of operating conditions. In the first method, a quasi-closed loop control strategy is proposed using steady microjet injection and the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) algorithm. The most energetic spatial mode of the unsteady pressure along the nozzle diameter is captured using the POD, which in turn is used to determine the distribution of microjet intensity along the nozzle exit. Preliminary experimental results from a STOVL supersonic jet facility at Mach 1.5 show that the quasi-closed loop control strategy, in some cases, provides an additional 8–10 dB reduction compared to axisymmetric injection at the desired operating conditions. The second method consists of a pulsed microjet injection, motivated by the need to further improve the noise suppression. It was observed that the pulsed microjet was able to bring about the same noise reduction as steady injection using approximately 40% of the corresponding mass flow rate of the steady microjet case. Moreover, as the duty cycle increased, the performance of pulsed injection was further enhanced and was observed to completely eliminate the impinging tones at all operating conditions.     

Active flow control on the 25°Ahmed body using a new unsteady jet

A numerical simulation based on the Large eddy simulation method is carried out on the near wake flow behind a 25° slant angle Ahmed body to analyze and establish a new method to control the near wake flow. An active flow control using a new unsteady jet derived from the traditional synthetic jet is applied to reduce the aerodynamic drag. The control devices are distributed along the separation edges on the rear part of the body. Their effects on the near wake and the rear body by influencing the flow topology and the static pressure distribution are examined respectively. The control frequency of the jet as the key forcing parameter is taken into consideration as well. The different actuation set-ups lead to a max drag reduction of up to 13.6%, which demonstrates a good correlation with the static pressure distribution at the rear end of the body.     

Research of driving force coordination mechanism in parallel manipulator with actuation redundancy and its performance evaluation

Actuation redundancy makes it possible for parallel manipulator to optimize the driving force distribution when operating scheduled trajectory. As number of actuation exceeding its degrees of freedom, actuation coordination becomes one of the most important issues of redundantly actuated parallel manipulator. This study focuses on the driving force coordination of parallel manipulator with actuation redundancy under scheduled trajectory. In this paper, dynamic model for general redundantly actuated parallel manipulator is established and, with that, driving force coordination mechanism is analyzed. Two new performance indexes, coordination ratio and coordination factor, are put forward to evaluate the parallel manipulator. With the indexes, two methods are studied to improve the control performance of parallel manipulator with actuation redundancy. One is a control algorithm for driving force adjustment to enhance actuation coordination, and the other is control strategy optimization to enhance control stability. Examples with 6PUS \(+\) UPU and 3RPR validate the effectiveness of proposed methods.