Experimental Investigation of Enhancing Wing Aerodynamic Performance by Plasma Synthetic Jet

Plasma synthetic jet (PSJ) is a new active flow control actuator. Currently, the most of the studies focuses on the excitation characteristic of PSJ rather than the application characteristic in flow fields. In order to further investigate the ability of the PSJ actuators to control the low-speed flow separation on a high lift configuration, this paper installs plasma synthetic jet actuator (PSJA) on the leading edge of wing and studies the influence of PSJA on the lift characteristics of wing. Results show that the flow separation can be suppressed by PSJ. PSJ in a large frequency range can produce efficient control results in near stall angle of attack condition. However, in post stall angle of attack condition, the PSJ with a low-frequency is better. With the increase of input voltage, the effective frequency range is widened. With the increase of inflow velocity, the control effect becomes worse. When the inflow velocity is 20m/s, the stall angle of attack increases 5°, the maximum lift coefficient increases 8.1%; when the inflow velocity rises to 40m/s, the stall angle of attack increases 3°, the maximum lift coefficient increases 4.5%.