Three-dimensional plasma-based flow control simulations with high-fidelity coupled first-principles approaches

Abstract

Numerical simulations are employed to understand flow control mechanisms of asymmetric dielectric barrier discharges in the context of a NACA 0015 wing section. The body force is obtained separately from phenomenological and first-principles based models, respectively. A procedure to couple unsteady force fields obtained from multi-fluid models to very high-fidelity implicit large-eddy simulations is developed, implemented and evaluated. The article discusses the effect of Reynolds number, angle of attack, actuator strength and location as well as unsteadiness at radio frequency excitation and wide-spectrum duty cycle variation. Turbulence structure, streamwise vorticity generation mechanisms and acoustic fields are described. The results are assimilated in the context of the combined impact of near wall momentum enhancement and transition to turbulence, which appear to be the dominant effects at low- and high-Reynolds numbers respectively.