Numerical simulation of flow separation control by oscillatory fluid injection

Date

2005-08-29

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Publisher

Texas A&M University

Abstract

In this work, numerical simulations of flow separation control are performed. The sep-aration control technique studied is called 'synthetic jet actuation'. The developed code employs a cell centered finite volume scheme which handles viscous, steady and unsteady compressible turbulent flows. The pulsating zero mass jet flow is simulated by imposing a harmonically varying transpiration boundary condition on the airfoil's surface. Turbulence is modeled with the algebraic model of Baldwin and Lomax. The application of synthetic jet actuators is based in their ability to energize the boundary layer, thereby providing signifcant increase in the lift coefficient. This has been corroborated experimentally and it is corroborated numerically in this research. The performed numerical simulation investigates the flow over a NACA0015 air-foil. For this flow Re = 9??105 and the reduced frequency and momentum coefficient are F+ = 1:1 and C?? = 0:04 respectively. The oscillatory injection takes place at 12.27% chord from the leading edge. A maximum increase in the mean lift coefficient of 93% is predicted by the code. A discrepancy of approximately 10% is observed with corresponding experimental data from the literature. The general trend is, how-ever, well captured. The discrepancy is attributed to the modeling of the injection boundary condition and to the turbulence model.A sensitivity analysis of the lift coefficient to different values of the oscillation parameters is performed. It is concluded that tangential injection, F + ?? O(1) and the utilized grid resolution around the site of injection are optimal. Streamline fields ob-tained for different angles of injection are analyzed. Flow separation and attachment as functions of the injection angle and of the velocity of injection can be observed. It is finally concluded that a reliable numerical tool has been developed which can be utilized as a support tool in the optimization of the synthetic jet operation and in the modeling of its operation.

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