ABSTRACT: Unstructured Grid Simulations of Flow Separation Control Using Plasma Actuators

ABSTRACT:Unstructured Grid Simulations of Flow SeparationControl Using Plasma Actuators R.P. LeBeau ∗ ,D.A.Reasor † Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, U.S.A Y.B. Suzen ‡ Dept. of Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105, U.S.A. J.D. Jacob § Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, U.S.A P.G. Huang ¶ Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Wright State University, Dayton, OH 45435, U.S.A The use of actuators has been seen as an effective means for controlling flow over plates,airfoils, and turbine blades. The use of plasma actuators is attractive since it lacks movingparts and can be easily integrated onto different geometries. There have been many ex-periments dealing with boundary layer control using passive elements, such as tripping theflow with surface roughness or other means of perturbing the surface without the additionof an external source of energy. There have also been many different active methods forcontrolling the boundary layer; examples include the use of piezoelectric actuators andmorphing surfaces. Unlike many of the active methods listed above, plasma actuators areattractive because they can be easily implemented on a number of different geometries.Plasma Actuators have been proved, experimentally and numerically, as a potentially ef-fective method for boundary layer control. This boundary layercontrol is driven by a bodyforce vector tangent to the surface where the actuator is integrated. The purpose of thispaper is to introduce the mathematical models used to describe the phenomena associatedwith plasma actuators, to implement them in a three-dimensional unstructured grid code,and to verify it by comparing numerical and experimental results.