Computational 2D parameter study of suction and oscillatory blowing actuator with experimental validation

Abstract

Fluidic oscillators and ejectors were combined to create an effective flow control device, proved effective but have not been optimized yet. In the current study, mostly steady RANS simulations were used to optimize 11 geometric parameters of a generic-simplified suction and oscillatory blowing actuator (SaOB). Selected unsteady simulations and experiments validated the numerical optimization procedure findings. In the parameter optimization process, multiple input and output parameters are chosen to identify the strongest correlations between them. Non- or weakly- correlated parameters are eliminated from further study and others are combined to obtain a reduced set of correlated parameters. It was found that the Throat ratio (ejector to oscillator) parameter predicts the Entrainment ratio, while the cross-flow pressure gradient ratio can predict the ability of the SaOB actuator to produce effective oscillation. The optimized device performs significantly better than the starting point device.While the approach is appealing, open questions remain concerning the comparison of 2D simulations and the actual 3D geometry and compressibility effects.