Numerical investigation of the effect of the plasma actuator on aerodynamic coefficients of an airfoil in plunging motion

Plasma actuator is one of the noteworthy devices in flow control techniques which can delay separation by inducing external momentum to the boundary layer of the flow. In this paper, Numerical analysis of NACA0012 airfoil in plunging motion and some effective agents on it (reduced frequency, amplitude, Reynolds number), has been studied in with and without plasma actuator. The results indicates that, increasing in reduced frequency, increase the values of lift coefficient. By increasing reduced frequency, power of vortices shed into downstream and separate from the airfoil surface increases and the velocity variation in downstream decreases. Reducing friction in flow lead to increase velocity; as a result, the amount and range of thrust increases. Increasing amplitude and Reynolds number, respectively lead to increasing and reducing aerodynamic performance. When plasma actuator is on, lift coefficient and thrust would increase and aerodynamic coefficients would improve. Increasing in Reynolds number decreases the effects of the plasma actuator on the improvement of the aerodynamic coefficients.