Control of Karman Vortex Street By Using Plasma Actuators

Abstract

A mathematical model for unsteady electro- and aerodynamic processes in the presence of a plasma actuator has been elaborated through physical modeling of the dielectric barrier discharge. A specialized computational fluid dynamics package has been developed accordingly in order to calculate steady and unsteady laminar and turbulent flows. For the numerical simulation of the dielectric barrier discharge, in particular, two equations have been added to the Navier-Stokes equations and solved. They describe the distribution of the applied voltage and the charged particles density. The impact of the plasma actuator on air has been accounted for through the Lorentz force, included as a source term in the momentum balance equation. The system of governing equations for the considered hydrodynamics and electrodynamics has been written in an arbitrary curvilinear coordinate system in dimensionless form and integrated in the framework of a finite volume method. A TVD scheme with a third-order ISNAS flow limiter has been chosen for the convective terms approximation. The obtained block-matrix system of linear algebraic equations has been solved by the generalized minimal residual (GMRES) method with ILU(k) preconditioning. Using this approach, the occurrence of a propulsion force, emerging as a result of the action of plasma actuators on a cylinder in quiescent air, has been investigated. The possibility to mitigate the cylinder drag coefficient with the help of the plasma actuators, due to the ensuing suppression of the Karman vortex street, has been demonstrated.