Control of Flow around an Airfoil Using Piezo-ceramic Actuators

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The objective of this study is to increase lift and decrease drag of an airfoil by delaying flow separation with piezo-ceramic actuators. The airfoil used is NACA 0012 and the chord length is 30cm. An experiment is performed at the freestream velocity of 15m/s at which the Reynolds number is $3{\times}10^5$. Seven rectangular actuators are attached to the airfoil surface and move up and down based on the electric signal. At the attack angle of $16^{\circ}$, the separation point is delayed downstream due to momentum addition induced by the movement of the actuators. Drag and lift are measured using an in-house 2-dimensional load cell and the surface pressures are also measured. Lift is increased by 10%, drag is reduced by 50%, and the efficiency is increased to 170%. The flow fields with and without control are visualized using the smoke-wire and tuft techniques.