Compressor Airfoil Separation Control Using Nanosecond Plasma Actuation at Low Reynolds Number

Flow control effects of three types of nanosecond (NS) dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuations in suppressing the flow separation of a compressor airfoil at low Reynolds number are investigated using large-Eddy simulation. It has been found that the NS DBD plasma actuation can effectively suppress the flow separation and two mechanisms behind the flow control effect have been uncovered. First, the NS DBD plasma actuation can induce distorted flow structure (DFS) within the flowfield, and the induced DFS of plasma actuations located upstream of the flow separation zone can bring the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability of the shear layer between mainstream flow and separated flow froward to the separation point. Then, a large-scale spanwise vortex, which promotes the mixing of the main flow and the separated flow, is induced within the flow separation zone, thus resulting in suppression of the flow separation. Second, the plasma actuation located at the blade leading edge can improve the momentum of the laminar boundary layer, owing to the propagations of compressive waves as well as DFS along the blade surface. The plasma actuation located within the separation zone fails to suppress the boundary-layer flow separation effectively because the induced DFS cannot influence the shear layer between mainstream flow and separated flow.