Actuators are transducers that convert an electrical signal to a desired physical quantity. Active flow control actuators modify a flow by providing an electronically controllable disturbance. The field of active flow control has witnessed explosive growth in the variety of actuators, which is a testament to both the importance and challenges associated with actuator design. This review provides a framework for the discussion of actuator specifications, characteristics, selection, design, and classification for aeronautical applications. Actuator fundamentals are discussed, and various popular actuator types used in low-to-moderate speed flows are then described, including fluidic, moving object/surface, and plasma actuators. We attempt to highlight the strengths and inevitable drawbacks of each and highlight potential future research directions.

Actuators for Active Flow Control

Shock wave/boundary layer interactions occur in a wide range of supersonic internal and external flows, and often these interactions are associated with turbulent boundary layer separation. The resulting separated flow is associated with large-scale, low-frequency unsteadiness whose cause has been the subject of much attention and debate. In particular, some researchers have concluded that the source of low-frequency motions is in the upstream boundary layer, whereas others have argued for a downstream instability as the driving mechanism. Owing to substantial recent activity, we are close to developing a comprehensive understanding, albeit only in simplified flow configurations. A plausible model is that the interaction responds as a dynamical system that is forced by external disturbances. The low-frequency dynamics seem to be adequately described by a recently proposed shear layer entrainment-recharge mechanism. Upstream boundary layer fluctuations seem to be an important source of disturbances, but the evidence suggests that their impact is reduced with increasing size of the separated flow.

Low-Frequency Unsteadiness of Shock Wave/Turbulent Boundary Layer Interactions

Fluid manipulations at the microscale and beyond are powerfully enabled through the use of 10–1,000-MHz acoustic waves. A superior alternative in many cases to other microfluidic actuation techniques, such high-frequency acoustics is almost universally produced by surface acoustic wave devices that employ electromechanical transduction in wafer-scale or thin-film piezoelectric media to generate the kinetic energy needed to transport and manipulate fluids placed in adjacent microfluidic structures. These waves are responsible for a diverse range of complex fluid transport phenomena—from interfacial fluid vibration and drop and confined fluid transport to jetting and atomization—underlying a flourishing research literature spanning fundamental fluid physics to chip-scale engineering applications. We highlight some of this literature to provide the reader with a historical basis, routes for more detailed study, and an impression of the field's future directions.

https://users.monash.edu/~lyeo/Dr_Leslie_Yeo/Surface_Acoustic_Wave_Microfluidics_files/annurev-fluid-010313-141418.pdf

Surface Acoustic Wave Microfluidics

Recent developments in DBD plasma flow control

Laser-induced incandescence: Particulate diagnostics for combustion, atmospheric, and industrial applications

thepulsed-plasmajet,thejetisinjectednormallyintoaMach3crossflowandthepenetrationdistanceismeasuredby using schlieren imaging. These measurements show that the jet penetrates 1.5 boundary-layer thicknesses into the crossflow andthe jet-to-crossflowmomentum fluxratioisestimated to be0.6.Aseries of experiments wasconducted to determine the characteristics of the pulsed-plasma jet issuing into stagnant air at a pressure of 35 torr. These resultsshowthattypicaljetvelocitiesofabout250 m=scanbeinducedwithdischargeenergiesofabout30mJperjet. Furthermore, the maximum pulsing frequency was found to be about 5 kHz, because above this frequency the jet beginstomisfire.Themisfiringappearstobeduetothe finitetimeittakesforthecavitytoberechargedwithambient air between discharge pulses. The velocity at the exit of the jet is found to be primarily dependent on the discharge current and independent of other discharge parameters such as cavity volume and orifice diameter. Temperature measurementsaremadeusingopticalemissionspectroscopyandrevealthepresenceofconsiderablenonequilibrium between rotational and vibrational modes. The gas heating efficiency was found to be 10% and this parameter is shown to have a direct effect on the plasma jet velocity. These results indicate that the pulsed-plasma jet creates a sufficiently strong flow perturbation that holds great promise as a supersonic flow actuator.

Characterization of a High-Frequency Pulsed-Plasma Jet Actuator for Supersonic Flow Control

A pulsed-plasma jet actuator is used to control the unsteady motion of the separation shock of a shock wave/boundary layer interaction formed by a compression ramp in a Mach 3 flow. The actuator is based on a plasma-generated synthetic jet and is configured as an array of three jets that can be injected normal to the cross-flow, pitched, or pitched and skewed. The typical peak jet exit velocity of the actuators is about 300 m/s and the pulsing frequencies are a few kilohertz. A study of the interaction between the pulsed-plasma jets and the shock/boundary layer interaction was performed in a time-resolved manner using 10 kHz schlieren imaging. When the actuator, pulsed at StL ≈ 0.04 (f = 2 kHz), was injected into the upstream boundary layer, the separation shock responded to the plasma jet by executing a rapid upstream motion followed by a gradual downstream recovery motion. Schlieren movies of the interaction showed that the separation shock unsteadiness was locked to the pulsing frequency of the actuator, with amplitude of about one boundary layer thickness. Wall-pressure measurements made under the intermittent region showed about a 30% decrease in the overall magnitude of the pressure fluctuations in the low-frequency band associated with unsteady large-scale motion of the separated flow. Furthermore, by increasing the pulsing frequency to 3.3 kHz, the amplitude of the separation shock oscillation was reduced to less than half the boundary layer thickness. Investigation into the effect of the actuator location on the shock wave/boundary layer interaction (SWBLI) showed qualitatively and quantitatively that the actuator placed upstream of the separation shock caused significant modification to the SWBLI unsteadiness, whereas injection from inside the separation bubble did not cause a noticeable effect.

Control of unsteadiness of a shock wave/turbulent boundary layer interaction by using a pulsed-plasma-jet actuator

The use of a noble gas as an inert tracer for mixing studies in combustion systems is investigated. Simultaneous two-photon laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) of krypton and Rayleigh scattering are used for imaging measurements of mixture fraction and temperature in turbulent non-premixed jet flames. The turbulent flames investigated in this study include a piloted CH 4 /air flame (Sandia flame D) and a CH 4 /H 2 /N 2 flame (DLR-B flame). These flames are well-documented in the literature and enable an evaluation of krypton as a tracer in different fuel mixtures with varying degrees of differential diffusion. Krypton is excited from the ground state to the 5p[3/2] 2 state using 215 nm laser radiation, and the fluorescence decay to the metastable state, 5s[3/2] 2 , is detected at 760 nm. Single-shot krypton LIF and Rayleigh scattering images are analyzed in an iterative routine to determine mixture fraction and temperature. Measurements of the temperature- and species-dependent quenching rates for Kr-LIF are incorporated into this routine. The resulting average radial profiles of mixture fraction and temperature for both flames agree well with previously published measurements. The use of a noble gas as a chemically inert tracer has potential applications for mixing studies in a broad range of combustion environments.

Mixture fraction imaging in turbulent non-premixed flames with two-photon LIF of krypton

An experimental study was performed to investigate the soot–turbulence interaction in the soot-formation region of turbulent non-premixed co-flowing ethylene/N2 jet flames. Simultaneous velocity and soot volume-fraction (fv) fields were obtained using two-component particle image velocimetry and laser-induced incandescence, respectively. Measurements were made for jet exit Reynolds numbers between 8500 and 12,300, and the measurement location was 10 jet diameters downstream, near the beginning of the yellow luminous region where soot is first formed. In agreement with previous studies, the peak mean fv in the production region is inversely related to the bulk strain rate. The simultaneous data show that soot is formed to the inside of the stoichiometric surface (inferred from stoichiometric velocity), but the formation region moves outside to regions of lower velocity and strain rate as the bulk strain rate is increased. Soot structures form in low strain rate regions, but their upstream edge is seen to become stretched out and aligned at a preferred angle (near 45 degrees) owing to alignment with the instantaneous principal extensive strain rate. Statistical analysis shows that the soot exists, on average, in fluid with axial velocity of about 3 m/s and strain rate of 700 s−1, regardless of the jet exit velocity. The radial profiles of the covariance between fv and radial velocity are consistent with a model where the soot is formed at a preferred radial location (near the reaction zone) and then is transported by turbulent fluctuations to regions of lower fv.

Venkateswaran Narayanaswamy

Papers

Low-Frequency Unsteadiness of Shock Wave/Turbulent Boundary Layer Interactions

Characterization of a High-Frequency Pulsed-Plasma Jet Actuator for Supersonic Flow Control

Control of unsteadiness of a shock wave/turbulent boundary layer interaction by using a pulsed-plasma-jet actuator

Mixture fraction imaging in turbulent non-premixed flames with two-photon LIF of krypton

Simultaneous LII and PIV measurements in the soot formation region of turbulent non-premixed jet flames