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

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Abstract

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.

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Abbreviations

c :

Chord length

t :

Blade spacing

h :

Blade height

β 1 :

Inlet-air angle

β 2 :

Outlet-air angle

β s :

Blade stagger angle

i :

Angle of attack

ν ∞ :

Freestream velocity

R e :

Reynolds number based on the axial chord length and the freestream velocity

T 1 :

Static temperature at the cascade inlet

P 1 :

Static pressure at the cascade inlet

P *1 :

Total pressure at the cascade inlet

P 2 :

Static pressure at the cascade outlet

P *2 :

Total pressure at the cascade outlet

σ :

Total pressure recovery coefficient

ω :

Total pressure loss coefficient

ω baseline :

Total pressure loss coefficient without actuation

ω actuated :

Total pressure loss coefficient with actuation

δ(ω):

Relative reduction in the total pressure loss coefficient

δ(ω)max:

Relative reduction in the maximum total pressure loss coefficient

d 1 :

Upper electrode width

d 2 :

Lower electrode width

Δd :

Inner space of an electrode pair

h e :

Electrode height

h d :

Dielectric layer height

D :

Space between adjacent electrode pairs

T ac :

Period of the steady plasma aerodynamic actuation

F :

Driving frequency of the high voltage sine wave

T signal :

Period of the unsteady plasma aerodynamic actuation on duty

T control :

Period of the unsteady plasma aerodynamic actuation

f :

Excitation frequency of the unsteady plasma aerodynamic actuation

α :

Duty cycle of the unsteady plasma aerodynamic actuation

C :

Characteristic length of the axial separation region at the endwall

S r :

Strouhal number based on the characteristic length and the local freestream velocity

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Min JIA and Cheng-qin LI for the help in the experiment. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50906100), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (20090450373).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering College, Air Force Engineering University, Xi’an, China

    Ying-hong Li, Yun Wu, Min Zhou, Chang-bing Su & Xiong-wei Zhang

  2. Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Jun-qiang Zhu

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  1. Ying-hong Li
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  2. Yun Wu
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  3. Min Zhou
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  4. Chang-bing Su
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  5. Xiong-wei Zhang
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  6. Jun-qiang Zhu
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Correspondence to Yun Wu.

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Li, Yh., Wu, Y., Zhou, M. et al. Control of the corner separation in a compressor cascade by steady and unsteady plasma aerodynamic actuation. Exp Fluids 48, 1015–1023 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-009-0787-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-009-0787-2

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