Separation Control of NACA0015 Airfoil using Plasma Actuators

Abstract

Separation control of NACA0015 airfoil using plasma actuators was investigated. Plasma actuators in spanwise array, which consists of 21 electrodes, were located at the leading edge of the airfoil to give temporal periodic disturbances with phase variations into its boundary layer. The cord length of the airfoil was c = 100mm and corresponding Reynolds number was fixed at Re = 63,000. Non-dimensional frequency of the disturbance was chosen at F⁺ = 0.5 or 6. The gap between adjacent electrode was set as 1mm, and phase difference of the temporal periodic disturbances between adjacent electrode was set at φ = 0 or π. Velocity field was measured by conventional two-component PIV using a CCD camera (Imperx, B1922, 1920 x 1460pixels) and Nd-YAG laser (Quantel, Evergreen, 140mJ/pulse). Both large field of view (FOV) images capturing whole wing with surrounding flow and smaller FOV images focused on the separation bubble near leading edge were evaluated. Surface pressure was monitored by pressure transducers through pressure taps on the upper surface of airfoil. Lift and drag against the airfoil were measured using a two-component force balance.