Control of the near-wake flow around a circular cylinder with electrohydrodynamic actuators

We analysed the modifications of the near wake of a circular cylinder (2,300< Re <58,000) when the flow was perturbed steadily using an electrohydrodynamic actuator. Two electrodes flush-mounted on the surface of the cylinder were excited with DC power supplies to create a plasma sheet contouring the body. The discharge produced an electric force and changed the physical properties in the fluid layers at close vicinity to the surface. This plasma sheet diminished the base pressure, modified the size of the mean recirculation region and produced an increase in the shear stresses of the layers bounding the contour of this region.