Optimal Control of a Vortex Trapped by an Airfoil with a Cavity

An airfoil with a cavity traps a vortex; the lift increases but the vortex shows great receptivity to upstream disturbances. A simple potential flow model confirms that the vortex stability basin is of a reduced extent. In this paper we present a control technique stabilizing the vortex position based on a potential flow model. The actuators are sources/sinks at the wall and the suction/blowing law is obtained by the adjoint optimization method. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.