ADVANCES IN SYNTHETIC JET TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS IN FLOW CONTROL

Flow control is one of important areas of research in fluid technology, and in the 21st century, the most important breakthrough in aerodynamics may be in the area of flow control. The synthetic jet, a zero mass flux jet based on vortex dynamics, has been a remarkable and promising active flow control technology in the recent decade. First, the synthetic jet actuators and the main types of actuators are introduced briefly in this paper. The developments of actuators are summarized: the high-frequency, high-power, robust synthetic jet actuators and the mini-actuators. Secondly, the operation principle of a synthetic jet actuator, the formation of a synthetic jet, the unique characteristics of the synthetic jet flow-field and the characteristics of the synthetic jet technology are summarized. Lastly, the main and potential applications of the synthetic jet for flow control, such as flow separation control, aerodynamic control, jet vectoring control, mixing augmentation, heater and mass transfer enhancement, flow-induced noise suppression, micro-fluidic flow control, flight control, particle scattering and synthetic jet gyroscope, are introduced, and the main controlling mechanisms for these applications are also discussed.