The control of flow separation by periodic excitation

In several papers published in the first decade of this century, Kutta and Joukowsky independently proposed that the lift on an airfoil at incidence in a steady un separated flow is given by potential-flow theory with the unique value of the circulation that removes the inverse-sQuare-root velocity singularity at the trailing edge. This proposal-tantamount to saying (cf. Batchelor 1967) that in the unsteady start-up phase the action of viscosity is such that, in the ultimate steady motion, viscosity can be explicitly ignored but implicitly incorporated in a single edge condition-is known as the Kutta-Joukowsky hypothesis. Subsequently the name "Kutta condition" (no doubt largely for brevity) has come to be used to connote the removal of a velocity singularity at some distinguished point on a body in unsteady flow. 1 The condition has recently been applied to unsteadiness in a variety of mean configurations. These include trailing-edge flows with the same and with different flows on the two sides of the body upstream of the edge, attached leading-edge flows, and grossly separated flows past bluff bodies. Imposition of a Kutta condition on unsteady perturbations to one of these mean flows has a variety of physical ramifications. It represents the mechanism by which both the lift is changed and the amplitude and directivity of a sound field are modified. It is the analytical step that in many cases describes the conversion-almost total-of acoustic energy in an incident sound wave to energy of vortical motion on a shear layer ; on

The Kutta Condition in Unsteady Flow

Vortex shedding and instability wave frequencies have been measured in the wakes of spheres in the Reynolds number range 500<Re<60 000. The effect of acoustic excitation was examined and an interaction between the two frequency modes was found at the lower Reynolds numbers; through this interaction, external forcing at the instability frequency could change the vortex shedding frequency. The development of the mean wake was manipulated by forcing near to the dominant shear layer instability frequency. With this forcing, the separated shear layer moved closer to the surface of the sphere and the reversed flow region of the wake was shortened. Concomitantly, the base pressure decreased and drag increased.

Observations of the frequencies in a sphere wake and of drag increase by acoustic excitation

We explore the control of wall-separated flow on a NACA 63 3 -018 airfoil and a circular cylinder by using the internal acoustic excitation technique. Experimental study of the characteristics of the flow under internally emanating acoustic waves is performed in an open-type, suction wind tunnel. Tests are carried out at the Reynolds number ranging from 6.3 × 10 3 to 5.0 × 10 5 based on the relevant characteristic lengths, the airfoil chord, and the cylinder diameter

R. Whipkey

Papers

Control of turbulent boundary layer flows by sound