Suction and Oscillatory Blowing Actuator

Enhancing the ability to control flows in different configurations and flow conditions can lead to improved systems. Certain active flow control (AFC) actuators are efficient at low Mach numbers but the momentum and vorticity they provide limits the utilization to low speeds. At higher Mach numbers, robust, unsteady, efficient and practical fluidic actuators are a critical, largely missing, enabling technology in any AFC system. A new actuator concept, based on the combination of steady suction and oscillatory-blowing (SaOB) is presented. The actuator can achieve near-sonic speeds at about 1 kHz. It has no moving parts and therefore is expected to have superior efficiency and reliability. The operation principle of the SaOB actuator is presented along with two predictive computational models and their experimental validation.