INVESTIGATION OF PLASMA ACTUATORS FOR FLOW SEPARATION CONTROL ON A LOW PRESSURE TURBINE BLADE AT LOW REYNOLDS NUMBER

The present study aims to investigate, by numerical simulations, the potentiality of plasma actuators to reattach the separated flow along a low pressure turbine blade, at low-Reynolds number. The flow over a curved wall plate, installed in a low Reynolds wind tunnel to simulate the suction surface of a low-pressure turbine blade, was simulated. The installation on the profile of plasma actuators has been considered. Numerical simulations on a three dimensional computational grid were performed in absence and in presence of actuation. The three dimensional case without actuation was validated with experimental data found in the literature. In presence of actuation, the plasma induced force was modeled and introduced as a source term in the momentum Navier-Stokes equation; the corresponding two dimensional numerical flow simulations were validated with the experimental data obtained by Particle Image Velocimetry and Laser Doppler Velocimetry. The same force was applied in the three dimensional simulations. Two different plasma actuator configurations have been investigated: a micro single dielectric barrier discharge and a micro linear plasma synthetic jet with and without thrust vectoring. By using these devices the separation of the flow has been considerably reduced.