Continuous control of asymmetric forebody vortices in a bi-stable state

Abstract

Aiming at the problem of continuous control of asymmetric forebody vortices at a high angle of attack in a bi-stable regime, a dual synthetic jet actuator embedded in an ogive forebody was designed. Alternating unsteady disturbance with varying degree asymmetrical flow fields near the nozzles is generated by adjusting the duty cycle of the drive signal of the actuator, specifically embodying the asymmetric time-averaged pattern of jet velocity, vorticity, and turbulent kinetic energy. Experimental results show that within the range of relatively high angles of attack, including the angle-of-attack region in a bi-stable state, the lateral force of the ogive forebody is continuously controlled by adjusting the duty cycle of the drive signal; the position of the forebody vortices in space, the vorticity magnitude, the total pressure coefficient near the vortex core, and the vortex breakdown location are continuously changed with the duty cycle increased observed from the time-averaged flow field. Instantaneous flow field results indicate that although the forebody vortices are in an unsteady oscillation state, a continuous change in the forebody vortices’ oscillation balance position as the duty cycle increases leads to a continuous change in the model’s surface pressure distribution and time-averaged lateral force. Different from the traditional control principle, in this study, other different degree asymmetrical states of the forebody vortices except the bi-stable state are obtained using the dual synthetic jet control technology.