Investigation of Transition Flow on Suction Surface of Highly Loaded Compressor Cascade Controlled by Plasma Actuator

Abstract

A practical method for improving the performance of highly loaded compressor cascades is to delay the onset of transition. Plasma actuators are used on the suction surface to manage the transition from laminar to turbulent by injecting momentum into the boundary layer. An experimental study was conducted in a low-speed wind tunnel to validate the actuator's control capability and the numerical simulation model. Both experimental and numerical results show that actuators located at various positions can improve the performance of the cascade and reduce flow loss to varying degrees. The most effective method is to place the actuator upstream of the separation bubble to delay the onset of the transition from laminar to turbulent flow, which results in a 6.32% decrease in total pressure loss and a 2.5% increase in static pressure rise. The control scheme at the transition position restores laminar flow locally, causing a secondary transition. However, it has the lowest control capability due to the dissipation of the actuator momentum. The downstream control scheme only suppresses the degree of turbulent separation without delaying laminar separation, resulting in weaker control effectiveness compared to the upstream laminar separation scheme. The study also examined the interaction between the plasma actuator on the suction surface and the flow in the endwall region, which showed that the accumulation of low-energy fluid in the corner region increases, resulting in a slight elevation of shear losses between the midspan boundary layer and the corner region.