Experimental and Numerical Investigations of the Characteristics of Pulsed Thermal Actuators

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to numerically, experimentally, and analytically investigate the characteristics of plasma pulsed thermal actuators (PT actuators) and to assess their possibilities in controlling flow around airfoils, wings, and configurations at large subsonic freestream velocities. For the PT actuators of the types considered the mathematical models adequately describing their effect on flow past bodies are developed. The characteristics of a prototype PT actuator are experimentally investigated on a specially developed rig. A new type of the PT actuator equippedwith a channel (PTC actuator) is proposed; it is designed to operate at a high pulse repetition frequency and at large flow velocities. Numerical investigations show that the PTC actuators are free of the essential and fundamental shortcoming of the PT actuators which consists in the working zone superheating at high pulse repetition frequencies.