Controlling the flow-induced oscillations of a flexible cantilever beam using a plasma actuator

Abstract

We study the dynamics of flow over a flexible cantilever beam and explore the effect of the plasma actuators located at the upper and lower end edges of the beam to control the flow-induced vibration of the beam. For this purpose, three-dimensional simulations are performed at various Reynolds numbers for three cases including simple beam, beam without the plasma actuators, and beam with the plasma actuators. The results show that in comparison with the simple beam, the beam with the plasma actuators reduces the displacement of the tip by 33% and 18% at Reynolds numbers Re = 200 and 300, respectively. The plasma actuators cause a monotonic oscillation and a regular vortex street with reducing the strength of the formed vortex and increase the bending of the beam. The presence of the plasma actuators at the free end of the beam reduces the root mean square lift coefficient by 32.8% at Re = 200 and 5.6% at Re = 300. Although the parameters of the plasma actuators for the upper and lower actuators are constant, by changing the position of the free end of the beam, the velocity profiles will be different and depend on the structural flexibility and flow regime.