Numerical Investigation of Flow Separation Control over an NACA0018 Airfoil Using Sweeping Jet Actuator

As an active flow control technology and with the advantages of no moving components, the Sweeping jet actuator has become a hotspot in the field of flow control. However, the linear relationship between oscillation frequency and momentum coefficient in a sweeping jet actuator makes it difficult to determine the dominant factors that affect control effectiveness. Decoupling the oscillation frequency and momentum coefficient, as well as determining the control mechanism, is the focus of studying the sweeping jet actuator. In this study, a novel sweeping jet actuator is designed using synthetic jets instead of feedback channels and applied to the flow separation control of NACA0018 airfoil. This article studies the control effect under three oscillation frequencies of F+ = f × c/U∞ = 1, 10, 100 and three momentum coefficients of Cμ = 0.45%, 0.625%, 0.9%. The numerical results indicate that all three oscillation frequencies have good control effects on flow separation, and the control effect is best when F+ = 1, with the maximum lift coefficient increasing by approximately 14% compared to the other two cases. And the sweeping jet actuator has a better ability to control flow separation as the momentum coefficient increases. By decoupling the characteristics of the sweeping jet actuator and conducting numerical analysis of the flow control effect, it will promote its better engineering application in the field of flow control.