Investigation of synthetic jet actuator position in delaying separation of a supercritical airfoil

The aim of present study is to delay stall and increase the aerodynamic performance of NASA GAW- (2) supercritical airfoil by using a synthetic jet actuator. In this research, the diaphragm movement and the generated jet flow of the actuator are numerically simulated using Fluent software. The flow simulation was performed by solving the Navier-Stokes equations under turbulent and unsteady flow conditions in the subsonic flow. Before simulating the actuator, the flow around the based airfoil is first numerically simulated and aerodynamic properties of the airfoil are compared and validated with existing experimental results. In the next step, the effect of the synthetic jet actuator in delaying separation in stall region and increasing aerodynamic performance is numerically simulated. The location of the actuator on the airfoil has been studied. In this study, synthetic jet simulations were performed in three locations of 12, 20 and 30% of the airfoil chord length to identify the optimal location for actuation. The location of 30% of airfoil chord length at all angles of attack was able to provide a higher CL than the maximum CL in the based airfoil. The highest value of the lift can be seen by using the flow control at an angle of attack of 18 degrees with a 6% lift increment compared to the based airfoil. Also, the drag coefficient in the position of 30% of the chord length and the angle of attack of 20 degrees decreased by 26% compared to the based airfoil.