Towards a Practical Synthetic Jet Actuator for Industrial Scale Flow Control Applications

The global evolution of the aerospace market is driving flow control research towards full industrial scale applications. In this approach, technologies need to demonstrate effectiveness, as well as compliance with the aircraft performance constraints. The design of a synthetic-jet-based system for a civil transport aircraft would provide an early understanding on the viability and potential applications of the technology. This study characterises experimentally an optimised piezoelectric-based synthetic jet actuator (SJA). Three full scale systems were developed for an A321: a flap, a slat and a cruise, both for separation and shock control. The systems were designed based both on experimental results and on an extensive hardware research. The laboratory optimisation of SJAs has led to the achievement of peak velocities of 130 m/s and peak conversion efficiencies of around 15%. All systems presented power and weight requirements within the aircraft performance budget, where the flap system resulted in the lowest values. The question that still remains is whether or not the performance benefits will outweigh the system costs.