Simulation of body force field effects on airfoil separation control and optimization of plasma actuator

Abstract

Among all active flow control methods, EHD, MHD and EMHD are the only methods which operate on the basis of body force induction on flow field. The EHD plasma actuator is the proper method which has been used in various flow control applications recently. In this paper, the effects of different body force fields on different domains have been studied for separation control on NACA 0021 and the results have been discussed. The airflow velocity has been assumed to be 35 m s−1 at a post-stall angle of attack of 23°. Three different domains have been used around the airfoil to investigate body forces with different strengths and directions and those which give the best result in separation control have been obtained for each domain. It has been shown that the results could be used for optimizing the plasma actuator by manipulating its electrode configuration.Two non-dimensional numbers, Ab and Dc, have been obtained and validated by different applied body forces. These numbers have been defined for plasma actuators to show their efficiency in different applications.