Flow Reattachment on a NACA 0025 Airfoil Using an Array of Microblowers

Abstract

An array of commercially available synthetic jet actuators was developed for controlling flow separation on a NACA 0025 airfoil. The array is more compact in comparison to standard synthetic jet actuators previously studied for separation control. Wind tunnel experiments were conducted at chord Reynolds number [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. Control of separation was applied by the array through forcing at the wake and shear layer frequencies ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], respectively). Both effectively suppress flow separation, increase lift, and decrease drag. The dynamics of the reattached flow show different feature for the two forcing schemes. The results demonstrate that this array has comparable control effectiveness on separation to other synthetic jet actuators.