Hybrid transition control approach for plasma actuators

Abstract

This work reports on the development of a novel hybrid transition control method for single DBD plasma actuators. The experiments have been carried out on a natural laminar flow airfoil in a wind tunnel and combine two methods previously used for transition control purposes with DBD plasma actuators: boundary-layer stabilization by quasi-steady wall-parallel momentum addition, and active wave cancelation by linear superposition utilizing modulated momentum injection. For this purpose, the modulated body force is controlled using an improved extremum seeking controller based on an extended Kalman filter. Combining the two methods in a single actuator has advantages. Applied to 2-D Tollmien–Schlichting waves, the achievable transition delay in hybrid mode is significantly larger than the isolated effects, while the energy consumption remains almost unchanged compared to the case of continuous actuation. For a Reynolds number of $Re=0.94 \cdot 10^6$, a transition delay of ${\Updelta}x/c=0.242$ could be observed.