Development and characterization of high-frequency resonance-enhanced microjet actuators for control of high-speed jets

Abstract

For flow control applications requiring high-frequency excitation, very few actuators have sufficient dynamic response and/or control authority to be useful in high-speed flows. Due to this reason, experiments involving high-frequency excitation, attempted in the past, have been limited to either low-frequency actuation with reasonable control authority or moderate-frequency actuation with limited control authority. The current work expands on the previous development of the resonance-enhanced microactuators to design actuators that are capable of producing high-amplitude pulses at much higher frequencies [\(\mathcal {O}\) (10 kHz)]. Using lumped element modeling, two actuators have been designed with nominal frequencies of 20 and 50 kHz. Extensive benchtop characterization using acoustic measurements as well as optical diagnostics using a high-resolution micro-schlieren setup is employed to characterize the dynamic response of these actuators. The actuators performed at a range of frequencies, 20.3–27.8 and 54.8–78.2 kHz, respectively. In addition to providing information on the actuator flow physics and performance at various operating conditions, this study serves to develop easy-to-integrate high-frequency actuators for active control of high-speed jets. Preliminary testing of these actuators is performed by implementing the 20-kHz actuator on a Mach 0.9 free jet flow field for noise reduction. Acoustic measurements in the jet near field demonstrate attenuation of radiated noise at all observation angles.