Thrust and flow characteristic of double synthetic jet actuator underwater

Abstract In this paper, underwater thrust vectoring method based on double synthetic jet actuator is studied. The thrust characteristic of the system under different nozzle distances and phase lags are numerically investigated. The numerical method is validated using data in the literature. The average normal thrust increases when nozzle distance increases. The average tangential thrust decreases when nozzle distance increases. The jet interacts with each other strongly under small nozzle distances. When the two actuators are far enough, the interaction between adjacent jets is negligible. The average normal thrust keeps nearly invariant when phase lag varies. The average tangential thrust increases when phase lag increases from 0 to π and decreases when phase lag increases from π to 2π. The variation of the thrust vectoring angle has the same tendency with the average tangential thrust. The velocity vector and the vorticity contour are given. The mathematical model of the average normal and average tangential thrust is also established.