Influence of synthetic jet location on active control of an airfoil at low Reynolds number

The reattachment of post-stall separated flow on a NACA 0025 airfoil at a Reynolds number of 100,000 and angle-of-attack of 12\(^\circ\) using synthetic jet control was studied experimentally. The goal of this work was to study the effect of control parameters including blowing ratio, frequency, and in particular, slot location, on aerodynamic performance. Slot locations both upstream and downstream of the mean separation point were tested. The results showed that for both drag reduction and lift increase, once a particular blowing ratio was met, the benefits of control saturated. Positioning the slot at the most upstream location was found to be the most effective, both in terms of having the lowest threshold blowing ratio and producing the largest lift-to-drag ratios. A monotonic increase in threshold blowing ratio (defined as being the blowing ratio required for fully attached flow) and decrease in lift-to-drag was observed as the slot location moved downstream. It was also found that while forcing at a frequency corresponding to the wake instability led to maximum lift increase, forcing in the range of the separated shear layer instability (frequencies an order of magnitude larger) led to maximum drag reduction.