Numerical simulation on flow control of stalled NACA0015 airfoil with synthetic jet actuator in recirculation region

Numerical simulation on the separation flow control of stalled NACA0015 airfoil at high angle of attack (20°) was carried out with synthetic jet actuator in the recirculation region. The Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes equations were solved by commercial computational fluid dynamic software package Fluent6.1. The mechanism of flow separation control with the synthetic jet actuator in the recirculation region was also discussed by analyzing the vortex structure separated from the airfoil and the flow field near the actuator orifice. When the synthetic jet actuator is in the recirculation region of the airfoil, the separation point on the suction side of the airfoil can be delayed and the recirculation region can be decreased, which result in the lift enhancement of the airfoil. When the jet orientation is perpendicular to the airfoil wall with the normalized actuator frequency and the jet velocity ratio setting as 1, the lift of the airfoil is increased by about 40%.