Flow Separation Control on a Compressor-Stator Cascade Using Plasma Actuators and Synthetic and Continuous Jets

The effects of active separation control on a highly loaded subsonic compressor stator cascade were numerically studied by comparing the behavior of different devices: continuous jet actuator (CJA), zero-net mass-flux synthetic jet actuator (SJA), and plasma actuator (PA). For the jet actuator modeling, a suction/blowing type boundary condition was used, imposing a time-constant velocity for the CJA case and a prescribed sinusoidal time-varying velocity for the SJA case. For the PA case, the body force, which represents the effect of the plasma actuator on the flow, was added to the momentum equations in the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The PA is slightly more efficient for the reduction of flow separation in the region just downstream of the blade actuators. However, at the same mechanical power delivered by the actuator to the fluid, the SJAs are more advantageous than the CJAs and slightly outperform plasma actuator application from the pressure loss reduction and pressure rise viewpoints. The fluidic jets have low power requirements, whereas the power consumption would be prohibitive for the PA configuration that shows low fluid mechanic efficiency