Blowing flow control technology with air sources can enhance aircraft performance, while transverse jet technology may reduce air supply requirements and lower the pressure needed from engines or compressors. To investigate the characteristics of transverse jets, experimental studies were carried out by designing two schemes: Continuous Transverse Jet (CTJ) and Discrete Transverse Jet (DTJ). Using microcontroller technology, two forms of transverse jet actuators were developed for circular free jets that move radially. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technology was used to experimentally study the flow fields of these two transverse jet actuators. By comparing the flow field characteristics under different transverse jet actuators, the mechanisms behind the structural differences in the external flow fields of the two types of actuators are analyzed. The results indicate that the main reason for the deflection of DTJ is the vortex suction effect from adjacent jets, while the deflection of CTJ is primarily due to the spanwise velocity introduced by the mechanical device at the nozzle. This leads to DTJ exhibiting self-similar, dimensionless velocity distribution across sections, while CTJ does not. In the timeaveraged flow field, it is observed that the maximum flow velocity and coverage range of DTJ are larger than those of CTJ. The single jet of CTJ, after deflection, forms counter-rotating vortices at different flow directions, causing its flow velocity coverage to gradually shrink in the streamwise direction. The analysis from Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) indicates that, compared to DTJ, the first two dominant modes of CTJ show a greater degree of deflection in the Z direction due to the additional spanwise velocity. The wind tunnel test verifies that, at the same flow rate, the traverse jet increases lift coefficient by up to 70 % compared to the steady jet.

Conventional plasma synthetic jet actuators rely only on jet orifice for suction when functioning for long durations. A limited supplementary gas leads to jet velocity reduction and weakening of the flow control ability. Therefore, this study proposes an air-supplied actuator with a check valve externally connected to the cavity to improve its gas-supplying ability and jet performance. A quartz glass discharge chamber is developed to clarify the internal working mechanism of the air-supplied actuator. High-speed schlieren is employed to photograph the internal flow field of the discharge chamber. The results reveal that the inhalation airflow velocity of the jet orifice is doubled when the actuator is continuously working in the effective frequency band under the combined action of additional air supply from the check valve in the inhalation recovery stage. The gas pressure in the cavity is closer to the initial discharge state, discharge breakdown voltage is higher, discharge energy is stronger, and the process of gas expansion to generate a jet is less affected by the core defect of the heat source, thereby significantly increasing the jet velocity and saturation operating frequency of the actuator. The obtained results have important implications for the performance optimization of the air-supplied actuator.

To investigate the flow control characteristics of antiphase pulsed jet technology and explore a more efficient method to control unsteady flow with minimal impact on flow turbulence, wind tunnel experiments were conducted. The aim was to address the issue of flow separation control on the surface of a cylindrical model. The model had a diameter of 100 mm, and an experimental setup utilizing an antiphase pulsed jet excitation was developed. The optimisation of unsteady jet control involved adjusting parameters such as jet momentum coefficient, slot position, and excitation frequency. The flow separation control effect on the cylinder surface was compared between in-phase and antiphase pulsed jet using a particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. The mechanisms of flow control for these two methods were analysed. The results showed that in still air, increasing the jet momentum led to a gradual decrease in the high-velocity region, which also moved away from the wall. Under incoming flow conditions, positioning the slot closer to the separation point resulted in better flow separation control, particularly when the excitation frequency matched the main flow frequency. Both in-phase and antiphase pulsed jet excitations effectively suppressed flow separation. In the near-wall region within the symmetric plane between the two slots, the antiphase excitation reduced the root mean square of velocity fluctuations by approximately 1.9% and increased the average velocity by approximately 15.5% compared to in-phase pulsed jet excitation. In-phase pulsed jets exhibited low-frequency, high-velocity characteristics near the separation point, while antiphase pulsed jets, due to the alternating discharge of the two jets, had a lesser impact on the flow field turbulence.

An air-supplement plasma synthetic jet (PSJ) actuator increases the air supplemental volume in the recovery stage and improves the jet energy by attaching a check valve to the chamber of a conventional actuator. To explore the flow control effect and mechanism of the air-supplement actuator, via particle image velocimetry experiments in a low-speed wind tunnel, the flow field and boundary layer characteristics of a two-dimensional airfoil surface under different actuation states were compared for different attack angles and jet orifices. The experimental results show that, compared with the conventional actuation state, the jet energy of the air-supplement PSJ is higher and the indirect mixing effect of the counter-vortex sequence produced by the jet-mainstream interaction is stronger. Furthermore, the boundary layer mixing effect is better, which can further suppress flow separation and improve the critical flow separation attack angle. Moreover, increasing the jet momentum coefficient can enhance the flow control effect. The findings of this study could provide guidance for the flow control application of air-supplement PSJs.

为了增强等离子体激励器的扰动能力、 提升等离子体气动激励的控制效果,采用高压探针、 烟流显示和PIV流场测试等多种研究手段,开展了磁场加速等离子体激励器特性研究,获得了激励器不同时刻的放电图像,分析了磁场强度对激励器电学特性与诱导流场特性的影响规律.结果表明,(1)放电等离子体的定向运动速度与磁场强度成正比,磁加速等离子体的最大移动速度达到了6 m/s;(2)通过对不同剖面的诱导流场进行研究发现,磁场加速等离子体激励器能够在近壁区产生一系列涡结构.此外,该诱导流场具有显著的三维特征与非定常特性.研究结果为开展基于磁加速等离子体气动激励的流动控制奠定了基础.

The characteristics and control of a wingtip vortex are of great significance when considering drag reduction and flight safety of transportation aircrafts. The associated aerodynamic phenomenon resulting from rolling up of a wingtip vortex includes boundary layer flow, shear layer separation, and vortex breakdown, while the interaction of a wingtip vortex with the airframe causes induced drag, wingtip noise, etc. This paper studies a normal blowing method utilized to control the wingtip vortex. Large eddy simulation (LES) technique applied to a straight NACA0012 wing having a chord length (c) of 0.4 m is adopted for this study. The Reynolds number based on the chord length is 1.6×106 and the angle of attack is 12°. The computational approach utilized the dynamic Smagorinsky-Lilly subgrid model for 3D simulations. Normal blowing from a high aspect ratio jet from the wingtip lower surface was used to control the wingtip vortex. From 0.05c to 0.30c, the blowing slit width was 1 mm, with the slit exit treated as a velocity inlet boundary condition which supplied the blowing jet with a momentum coefficient of 0.28%. Results of axial velocity and span-wise pressure distribution of the clean airfoil presented good agreement with known experimental data. LES results indicate that normal blowing suppresses the primary vortex strength, while the vortex core radius, maximum induced velocity, axial vorticity flux, and pressure peak of the primary vortex are reduced by 25%, 28%, 46%, and 52%, respectively. Flow field structures before and after blowing show that blowing suppresses the shedding, coiling, and convergence of the free vortex layers near the primary vortex. This study also shows that normal blowing generates a jet-induced vortex at the location of the secondary vortex, while backflow, volume expansion, and spiral burst can be observed in the jet-induced vortex. The bursting jet-induced vortex destroys the jet-like flow structure of the primary vortex at the trailing edge.

In order to promote an in-depth understanding of the mechanism of leading-edge flow separation control over an airfoil using a symmetrical Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuator excited by a steady-mode excitation, an experimental investigation of an SC (2)-0714 supercritical airfoil with a symmetrical DBD plasma actuator was performed in a closed chamber and a low-speed wind tunnel. The plasma actuator was mounted at the leading edge of the airfoil. Time-resolved Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) results of the near-wall region in quiescent air suggested that the symmetrical DBD plasma actuator could induce some coherent structures in the separated shear layer, and these structures were linked to a dominant frequency of f0 = 39 Hz when the peak-to-peak voltage of the plasma actuator was 9.8 kV. In addition, an analysis of flow structures without and with plasma actuation around the upper side of the airfoil at an angle of attack of 18° for a wind speed of 3 m/s (Reynolds number Re = 20000) indicated that the dynamic process of leading-edge flow separation control over an airfoil could be divided into three stages. Initially, this plasma actuator could reinforce the shedding vortices in the separated shear layer. Then, these vortical structures could deflect the separated flow towards the wall by promoting the mixing between the outside flow with a high kinetic energy and the flow near the surface. After that, the plasma actuator induced a series of rolling vortices in the vicinity of the suction side of the airfoil, and these vortical structures could transfer momentum from the leading edge of the airfoil to the separated region, resulting in a reattachment of the separated flow around the airfoil.

为了进一步掌握等离子体流动控制机理,完善等离子体激励器数学模型,提升等离子体激励器扰动能力,采用粒子图像测速技术,在静止空气下开展了介质阻挡放电等离子体激励器诱导射流特性研究.实验时,将非对称布局激励器布置在平板模型上,随后将带有激励器的模型放置在有机玻璃箱内,从而避免环境气流对测试结果的影响.基于激励器诱导流场,分析了激励电压对诱导射流特性的影响,揭示了较高电压下诱导射流近壁区的拟序结构,获得了卷起涡、二次涡等拟序结构的演化发展过程,计算了卷起涡脱落频率,阐述了卷起涡与启动涡的区别,初步探索了卷起涡的耗散机制.结果表明:(1)层流射流不能完全概括等离子体诱导射流特性,激励电压是影响射流特性的重要参数.当电压较低时,诱导射流为层流射流;当电压较高时,诱导射流的雷诺数提高,射流剪切层不稳定,层流射流逐渐发展为湍流射流.(2)等离子体诱导湍流射流包含着卷起涡、二次涡等拟序结构;在固定电压下,这些涡结构存在恒定的卷起频率.(3)当激励电压较高时,流动不稳定使得卷起涡发生了拉伸、变形,引起了流场湍动能增大,从而加速了卷起涡的耗散.研究结果为全面认识激励器射流特性,进一步挖掘激励器卷吸掺混能力,提升激励器控制能力积累基础.

为了进一步提高等离子体激励器可控雷诺数,采用测力以及粒子图像测速(PIV)等研究方法,从二维机翼到三维半模,从低雷诺数到高雷诺数,开展了对称布局式介质阻挡放电(DBD)等离子体激励器控制超临界机翼气动特性的试验研究,分析了控制机理,实现了等离子体“虚拟舵面”的功能.结果表明:在雷诺数为2×106的情况下,对称布局式等离子体气动激励能较好地抑制超临界机翼绕流流场分离,使失速迎角推迟2°,最大升力系数提高8.98％.

Flow control using plasma actuator is a promising research field of aeronautical applications. Due to its low energy consumption, rapid response and simple construction, this actuator has been investigated in various aerodynamics problems, such as boundary layer flow control, drag reduction, lift enhancement, noise reduction, and flow separation control. In order to understand the controlling mechanism of plasma actuator, many researchers have been carried out some experiments on the plasma actuator characterization in quiescent air and obtained the evolution process of starting vortex induced by plasma actuator. But the plasma actuator always works under flow condition. Therefore, understanding the interaction process between the starting vortex and incoming flow is a key to promote this technology development. In this paper, the starting vortex induced by symmetrical Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuator in quiescent air or under flow condition was investigated using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Compared with the asymmetrical DBD plasma actuator, the symmetrical plasma actuator adopted the whole metal plate model as the insulated electrode. Three layers of kapton film as dielectric material covered the testing model and the thickness of each layer was 0.05 mm. The copper foil which was 2 mm in width and 0.05 mm in thickness was mounted on the trailing edge of the plate and oriented along the spanwise direction to induce a wall jet in the streamwise direction. The input AC voltage was 8 kV p-p and the frequency of the power source was 3 kHz. The wind speed was 1 m/s. The results suggested that the symmetrical actuator produced one pair of counter-rotating starting vortexes on each side of upper electrode and the trajectory of the starting vortex core was shown to scale with t(0.7) in quiescent air. Compared to the evolution law of starting vortex in still air, the development evolution and life time of starting vortex under flow condition was different due to the interaction influence between incoming flow and starting vortex. The breakdown time of downstream starting vortex was earlier and the location of the starting vortex core scaled with t(0.45) under flow condition. Conversely, the life time of upstream starting vortex which was in the opposite direction of incoming flow was delayed. The incoming flow enhanced the upstream starting vortex's capability of promoting mixing and entraining high-momentum fluid into boundary layer, therefore the boundary layer became more energetic and capable of withstanding adverse pressure gradient. The jet effect and mixing function could be achieved by the symmetrical plasma actuator. These investigations laid the groundwork for flow control using DBD plasma actuator at high wind speed or high Reynolds number.

An experimental investigation was conducted to evaluate the effect of symmetrical plasma actuators on turbulent boundary layer separation control at high Reynolds number. Compared with the traditional control method of plasma actuator, the whole test model was made of aluminum and acted as a covered electrode of the symmetrical plasma actuator. The experimental study of plasma actuators’ effect on surrounding air, a canonical zero-pressure gradient turbulent boundary, was carried out using particle image velocimetry (PIV) and laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) in the 0.75 m × 0.75 m low speed wind tunnel to reveal the symmetrical plasma actuator characterization in an external flow. A half model of wing-body configuration was experimentally investigated in the ∅ 3.2 m low speed wind tunnel with a six-component strain gauge balance and PIV. The results show that the turbulent boundary layer separation of wing can be obviously suppressed and the maximum lift coefficient is improved at high Reynolds number with the symmetrical plasma actuator. It turns out that the maximum lift coefficient increased by approximately 8.98% and the stall angle of attack was delayed by approximately 2° at Reynolds number 2 × 106. The effective mechanism for the turbulent separation control by the symmetrical plasma actuators is to induce the vortex near the wing surface which could create the relatively large-scale disturbance and promote momentum mixing between low speed flow and main flow regions.