Leading-edge flow separation control over an airfoil using a symmetrical dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator

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 of18° 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.     

Flow separation control on swept wing with nanosecond pulse driven DBD plasma actuators

A 15° swept wing with dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator is designed.Experimental study of flow separation control with nanosecond pulsed plasma actuation is performed at flow velocity up to 40 m/s. The effects of the actuation frequency and voltage on the aerodynamic performance of the swept wing are evaluated by the balanced force and pressure measurements in the wind tunnel. At last, the performances on separation flow control of the three types of actuators with plane and saw-toothed exposed electrodes are compared. The optimal actuation frequency for the flow separation control on the swept wing is detected, namely the reduced frequency is 0.775, which is different from 2-D airfoil separation control. There exists a threshold voltage for the low swept wing flow control. Before the threshold voltage, as the actuation voltage increases, the control effects become better. The maximum lift is increased by 23.1% with the drag decreased by 22.4% at 14°, compared with the base line. However, the best effects are obtained on actuator with plane exposed electrode in the low-speed experiment and the abilities of saw-toothed actuators are expected to be verified under high-speed conditions.     

Aerodynamic shape optimization for alleviating dynamic stall characteristics of helicopter rotor airfoil

In order to alleviate the dynamic stall effects in helicopter rotor, the sequential quadratic programming(SQP) method is employed to optimize the characteristics of airfoil under dynamic stall conditions based on the SC1095 airfoil. The geometry of airfoil is parameterized by the class-shape-transformation(CST) method, and the C-topology body-fitted mesh is then automatically generated around the airfoil by solving the Poisson equations. Based on the grid generation technology, the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes(RANS) equations are chosen as the governing equations for predicting airfoil flow field and the highly-efficient implicit scheme of lower–upper symmetric Gauss–Seidel(LU-SGS) is adopted for temporal discretization. To capture the dynamic stall phenomenon of the rotor more accurately, the Spalart–Allmaras turbulence model is employed to close the RANS equations. The optimized airfoil with a larger leading edge radius and camber is obtained. The leading edge vortex and trailing edge separation of the optimized airfoil under unsteady conditions are obviously weakened, and the dynamic stall characteristics of optimized airfoil at different Mach numbers, reduced frequencies and angles of attack are also obviously improved compared with the baseline SC1095 airfoil. It is demonstrated that the optimized method is effective and the optimized airfoil is suitable as the helicopter rotor airfoil.     

Experimental study of an anti-icing method over an airfoil based on pulsed dielectric barrier discharge plasma

Aircraft icing has long been a plague to aviation for its serious threat to flight safety. Even though lots of methods for anti-icing have been in use or studied for quite a long time, new methods are still in great demand for both civil and military aircraft. The current study in this paper uses widely used Dielectric Barrier Discharge(DBD) plasma actuation to anti-ice on a NACA0012 airfoil model with a chord length of 53.5 cm in a closed-circuit icing wind tunnel. An actuator was installed at the leading edge of the airfoil model, and actuated by a pulsed low-temperature plasma power source. The actuator has two types of layout, a striped electrode layout and a meshy electrode layout.The ice accretion process or anti-icing process was recorded by a CCD camera and an infrared camera. Instantaneous pictures and infrared contours show that both types of DBD plasma actuators have the ability for anti-ice under a freestream velocity of 90 m/s, a static temperature of -7℃,an Median Volume droplet Diameter(MVD) of 20 lm, and an Liquid Water Content(LWC) of 0.5 g/m~3. The detected variations of temperatures with time at specific locations reveal that the temperatures oscillate for some time after spraying at first, and then tend to be nearly constant values.This shows that the key point of the anti-icing mechanism with DBD plasma actuation is to achieve a thermal equilibrium on the model surface. Besides, the power consumption in the anti-icing process was estimated in this paper by Lissajous figures measured by an oscilloscope, and it is lower than those of existing anti-icing methods. The experimental results presented in this paper indicate that the DBD plasma anti-icing method is a promising technique in the future.     

Numerical investigation of dynamic stall suppression of rotor airfoil via improved co-flow jet

The decrease in aerodynamic performance caused by the shock-induced dynamic stall of an advancing blade and the dynamic stall of a retreating blade at low speed and high angles of attack limits the flight speed of a helicopter. However, little research has been carried on the flow control methods employed to suppress both the dynamic stall induced by a shock wave and the dynamic stall occurring at high angles of attack. The dynamic stall suppression of a rotor airfoil by Co-Flow Jet(CFJ) is nume...     

Aerodynamic performance enhancement of a flying wing using nanosecond pulsed DBD plasma actuator

Experimental investigation of aerodynamic control on a 35 swept flying wing by means of nanosecond dielectric barrier discharge(NS-DBD) plasma was carried out at subsonic flow speed of 20–40 m/s, corresponding to Reynolds number of 3.1 · 105–6.2 · 105. In control condition, the plasma actuator was installed symmetrically on the leading edge of the wing. Lift coefficient, drag coefficient, lift-to-drag ratio and pitching moment coefficient were tested with and without control for a range of angles of attack. The tested results indicate that an increase of 14.5% in maximum lift coefficient, a decrease of 34.2% in drag coefficient, an increase of 22.4% in maximum lift-to-drag ratio and an increase of 2 at stall angle of attack could be achieved compared with the baseline case. The effects of pulsed frequency, amplitude and chord Reynolds number were also investigated.And the results revealed that control efficiency demonstrated strong dependence on pulsed frequency. Moreover, the results of pitching moment coefficient indicated that the breakdown of leading edge vortices could be delayed by plasma actuator at low pulsed frequencies.     

Turbulent boundary layer separation control using plasma actuator at Reynolds number 2000000

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 number2 ×10~6. 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 largescale disturbance and promote momentum mixing between low speed flow and main flow regions.     

Experimental Investigation into Characteristics of Plasma Aerodynamic Actuation Generated by Dielectric Barrier Discharge

This article carries out synthetic measurements and analysis of the characteristics of the asymmetric surface dielectric barrier discharge plasma aerodynamic actuation.The rotational and vibrational temperatures of an N2 (C3Пu) molecule are measured in terms of the optical emission spectra from the N2 second positive system.A simplified collision-radiation model for N2(C) and N2+(B) is established on the basis of the ratio of emission intensity at 391.4 nm to that at 380.5 nm and the ratio of emission intensity at 371.1 nm to that at 380.5 nm for calculating temporal and spatial averaged electron temperatures and densities.Under one atmosphere pressure,the electron temperature and density are on the order of 1.6 eV and 1011cm-3 respectively.The body force induced by the plasma aerodynamic actuation is on the order of tens of mN while the induced flow velocity is around 1.3m/s.Starting vortex is firstly induced by the actuation;then it develops into a near-wall jet,about 70 mm downstream of the actuator.Unsteady plasma aerodynamic actuation might stimulate more vortexes in the flow field.The induced flow direction by nanosecond discharge plasma aerodynamic actuation is not parallel,but vertical to the dielectric layer surface.     

Parametric analyses for synthetic jet control on separation and stall over rotor airfoil

Numerical simulations are performed to investigate the effects of synthetic jet control on separation and stall over rotor airfoils. The preconditioned and unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations coupled with a k x shear stream transport turbulence model are employed to accomplish the flowfield simulation of rotor airfoils under jet control. Additionally,a velocity boundary condition modeled by a sinusoidal function is developed to fulfill the perturbation effect of periodic jets. The validity of the present CFD procedure is evaluated by the simulated results of an isolated synthetic jet and the jet control case for airfoil NACA0015. Then, parametric analyses are conducted specifically for an OA213 rotor airfoil to investigate the effects of jet parameters(forcing frequency, jet location and momentum coefficient, jet direction, and distribution of jet arrays) on the control effect of the aerodynamic characteristics of a rotor airfoil. Preliminary results indicate that the efficiency of jet control can be improved with specific frequencies(the best lift-drag ratio at F+= 2.0) and jet angles(40 or 75) when the jets are located near the separation point of the rotor airfoil. Furthermore, as a result of a suitable combination of jet arrays, the lift coefficient of the airfoil can be improved by nearly 100%, and the corresponding drag coefficient decreased by26.5% in comparison with the single point control case.     

Experimental investigations for parametric effects of dual synthetic jets on delaying stall of a thick airfoil

A promising strategy of synthetic jet arrays(SJA) control for NACA0021 airfoil in preventing flow separation and delaying stall is investigated. Through aerodynamic forces, flowfield and velocity profiles measurements, it indicates that the synthetic jet(SJ) could enlarge the mixing of the shear layer and then enhance the stability of boundary layer, resulting in scope reduction of the flow separation zone. Furthermore, the control effects of dual jet arrays positioned at 15%c(Actuator 1) and 40%c(Actuator 2) respectively are systematically investigated with different jet parameters, such as two typical relative phase angles and various incline angles of the jet. The jet closer to the leading edge of airfoil is more advantageous in delaying the stall of airfoil, and overall,the flow control performances of jet arrays are better than those of single actuator. At the angle of attack(Ao A) just approaching and larger than the stall Ao A, jet array with 180° phase difference could increase the lift coefficient more significantly and prevent flow separation. When momentum coefficient of the jet arrays is small, a larger jet angle of Actuator 2 is more effective in improving the maximum lift coefficient of airfoil. With a larger momentum coefficient of jet array, a smaller jet angle of Actuator 2 is more effective.     

翼型动态失速等离子体流动控制试验

针对动态失速引起的翼型气动性能恶化的问题,利用小型化的激励电源和介质阻挡放电等离子体激励器,借助动态压力测量和外触发式粒子图像测速（PIV）等手段开展了翼型动态失速等离子体流动控制试验研究。结果表明,等离子体气动激励能够有效控制翼型动态失速,改善平均气动力,提高翼型气动效率,减小气动力随迎角变化的迟滞区域。等离子体诱导出前缘附近的贴体翼面涡,促进分离流再附;增加了上翼面0.2~0.4弦长区域的吸力,减小了升力系数功率谱密度（PSD）分布的二、三、四阶能量幅值,在研究工况下实现了平均升力系数增加7.1%、失速迎角推迟1.3°和迟滞区域减小4.5%的明显控制效果;4°~9°迎角段,等离子体使得翼型平均阻力系数减小40%。此外,振荡频率增加使翼型绕流的非定常性增强,较高雷诺数下的翼型动态分离涡更加难以被抑制,均需要增加等离子体激励强度才能达到较好的控制效果。     

翼型动态失速影响因素及流动控制研究进展

深入认识翼型动态失速，结合有效流动控制手段，对解决直升机、风力机桨叶等动态失速引起的高阻力、大低头力矩等气动问题具有重要意义。本文首先介绍了翼型动态失速的流场特点和危害，进而分析了缩减频率、雷诺数、马赫数以及翼型型面等参数对动态失速的影响，并在此基础上总结了常见的动态失速流动控制方法及其研究进展。等离子体气动激励易于产生快速、可控的宽频带气动激励，在动态失速控制领域具有潜力，本文着重介绍了等离子体气动激励动态失速控制的概念和流动控制原理，总结了近来年等离子体激励在翼型动态失速控制上的进展。     

脉冲等离子体气动激励抑制翼型吸力面流动分离的实验

 为了提高等离子体气动激励控制附面层的能力,进行了脉冲等离子体气动激励抑制NACA 0015翼型失速分离的实验,研究了等离子体气动激励电压、位置、占空比和脉冲频率等对流动分离抑制效果的影响。在来流速度为72 m/s时,等离子体气动激励可以有效地抑制翼型吸力面的流动分离,翼型的升力增大约35%,翼型的临界失速迎角由18°增大到21°。实验结果表明：分离越严重,来流速度越大,有效抑制翼型失速分离的阈值电压越大;等离子体气动激励的最佳位置在流动分离起始点的前缘;调节占空比,可以在控制效果相当的情况下,降低等离子体气动激励所消耗的功率;当脉冲频率使斯特劳哈尔数等于1时,控制效果最佳。     

低速翼型分离流动的等离子体主动控制研究

为了研究等离子体激励器的放电形式及其诱导气流的规律,以及翼型迎角、自由来流速度分别对翼型流动分离抑制效果的影响。在低速、低雷诺数条件下利用介质阻挡放电等离子体激励器对NACA0015翼型进行了主动流动控制研究。结果表明：介质阻挡放电的形式为丝状放电;等离子体激励器诱导气流的方向由裸露电极指向覆盖电极,由电极的布置方式决定,与接线方式无关;当来流速度为25m／s,雷诺数为2．03×10^5时,等离子体气动激励可以有效地抑制翼型吸力面的流动分离,翼型最大升力系数增大约为9．7％,翼型l临界失速迎角由17．5°增大到20．5°;翼型失速延迟的真正原因并非单纯的气流加速;等离子体激励器的作用效果随着来流速度的提高而减弱,研究非定常激励或等离子体激励器与流场之间的耦合效应,也许更加具有潜力。     

射频介质阻挡放电改善NACA 0015翼型气动性能的实验

介质阻挡放电(DBD)均匀稳定、易于敷设,是机翼/翼型等离子体流动控制(PFC)中最常用的激励方式。射频介质阻挡放电激励频率高、放电功率大,且能在流场中产生明显的加热,应用潜力大。采用射频电源驱动DBD激励器产生等离子体,分析放电的体积力、热特性和诱导流场特性,开展了射频介质阻挡放电改善NACA 0015翼型气动性能的实验,研究了占空比、调制频率、载波频率和电源功率等参数对流动控制效果的影响规律。结果表明:射频等离子体激励的体积力效应随激励电压的增大而增加;射频等离子体激励产生的热量在诱导的流场中进行传导,加速流场;当来流速度为20m/s,Re=3.36×10~5时,在翼型前缘施加激励,使翼型临界失速迎角推迟1°,最大升力系数增大6.43%,且在过失速迎角下仍具有流动控制效果,使升力下降变缓;调制频率越大,控制效果越好;存在最佳占空比、载波频率和功率,占空比对流场控制效果的影响最显著,最佳占空比、载波频率和功率分别为20%,460kHz和50W。射频等离子体激励以体积力效应、热效应和诱导壁面射流改善失速流场,使得NACA0015翼型气动性能极大改善,流动分离得到有效控制。     

等离子体气动激励改善增升装置气动性能的试验

针对流动分离导致飞机增升装置气动性能下降的问题,进行了脉冲等离子体气动激励抑制增升装置流动分离的试验。研究了等离子体气动激励的频率、占空比及激励位置等参数对流动控制效果的影响。研究结果表明：等离子体气动激励通过加速近壁面附面层,增强附面层内的能量掺混,可有效抑制主翼和襟翼表面的流动分离,改善增升装置气动性能。在主翼前缘施加激励,可有效控制主翼表面大迎角下的失速分离,最大升力系数增大18.1%、临界失速攻角提高4°;在襟翼前缘施加激励,可有效抑制襟翼表面的流动分离,显著减小阻力,在4°迎角下,将试验模型阻力系数减小了28.7%,升力系数提高了7.1%。占空比对控制效果有较大影响,当占空比为10%～30%时,激励的非定常性更强,控制效果最好;占空比为50%的控制效果次之,占空比为100%时的控制效果最差。来流速度越高,逆压梯度越大,流动分离更难被抑制,控制效果也变差。该研究为在增升装置上应用等离子体流动控制技术提供了理论和方法的基础。     

翼型动态失速DBD等离子体流动控制的数值模拟研究

进行了翼型深度动态失速及基于DBD介质阻挡放电等离子体激励器的流动控制技术数值模拟研究。将激励器对流动空气的作用以彻体力源项形式加入N-S方程。通过数值求解此N-S方程,研究了DBD激励器对NACA0012翼型俯仰运动深度动态失速的控制作用;研究了DBD激励器工作方式对动态失速平均气动力、气动力迟滞曲线的影响,提出了控制效果较好的激励器工作方式。     

等离子体气动激励抑制翼型失速分离的仿真研究

通过求解表面放电的二维流体体力模型,建立了翼型等离子体流动控制的数学模型,得到等离子体气动激励诱导的体力和热量分布,与Navier-Stokes方程耦合求解.进行了低雷诺数条件下,等离子体气动激励抑制NACA0009翼型失速分离的数值仿真研究,研究了等离子体激励的强度、激励电极数目和激励位置对流动分离抑制和翼型升阻特性的影响.在雷诺数为58000、攻角为24°的情况下,施加等离子体激励后,升力系数由0.7449增大到1.2404;阻力系数由0.4012减小到0.3503.      

等离子体气动激励体积力的实验研究

等离子体流动控制作为一种新概念主动流动控制技术,其物理作用依据之一是“动力效应”。体积力作为表征“动力效应”的重要参数,对研究等离子体流动控制的原理具有重要意义。介绍了实验原理及系统的基本组成,对等离子体气动激励体积力进行了实验测量。结果表明：体积力的大小在mN量级;固定激励频率,激励电压增大时,体积力增大,且线性关系非常明显;固定激励电压,体积力受激励频率的影响不大。