Control of the corner separation in a compressor cascade by steady and unsteady plasma aerodynamic actuation

This paper reports experimental results on using steady and unsteady plasma aerodynamic actuation to control the corner separation, which forms over the suction surface and end wall corner of a compressor cascade blade passage. Total pressure recovery coefficient distribution was adopted to evaluate the corner separation. Corner separation causes significant total pressure loss even when the angle of attack is 0°. Both steady and unsteady plasma aerodynamic actuations suppress the corner separation effectively. The control effect obtained by the electrode pair at 25% chord length is as effective as that obtained by all four electrode pairs. Increasing the applied voltage improves the control effect while it augments the power requirement. Increasing the Reynolds number or the angle of attack makes the corner separation more difficult to control. The unsteady actuation is much more effective and requires less power due to the coupling between the unsteady actuation and the separated flow. Duty cycle and excitation frequency are key parameters in unsteady plasma flow control. There are thresholds in both the duty cycle and the excitation frequency, above which the control effect saturates. The maximum relative reduction in total pressure loss coefficient achieved is up to 28% at 70% blade span. The obvious difference between steady and unsteady actuation may be that wall jet governs the flow control effect of steady actuation, while much more vortex induced by unsteady actuation is the reason for better control effect.