Numerical studies of the application of active flow control to subsonic and transonic airfoil flows using a synthetic jet actuator

Active control of flow over airfoils is currently an area of heightened interest in the aerospace community because of its potential in reducing drag, eliminating separation at high angles of attack, and modulating the aerodynamic forces and moments. We study these possibilities by performing several numerical simulations. Numerical simulations are performed by employing an Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations solver in conjunction with a two-equation Shear-Stress-Transport (SST) turbulence model. In particular, the computations are performed for the following three classes of flows: (1) Subsonic flow past a 24% thick Clark-Y airfoil with a triangular bump on the upper surface with and without a synthetic jet actuator. The goal is to perform numerical simulations of this experimentally observed fluidic modification of airfoil pressure distributions leading to reduced pressure drag. The computations are compared with experiments performed at Georgia Tech. (2) Transonic flow past a NACA64A010 airfoil with a synthetic jet actuator. The goal is to control the shock/boundary layer interaction on the airfoil using a synthetic jet actuator to reduce drag as well to achieve desired modulation of aerodynamic forces and moments. (3) Subsonic flow past a commercial supercritical airfoil leveraging the presence of a Gurney flap with a synthetic jet actuator. The goal is again to improve the aerodynamic performance (increase or maintain lift and reduce drag) by using a synthetic jet actuator integrated in a bump on the pressure surface of the airfoil near the trailing edge. The computations are compared with the experiments performed at Georgia Tech.; The computations as well as the experiments show the feasibility of active flow control in reducing the drag of airfoils and in achieving the desired modulation of aerodynamic forces and moments.