Control of flow around a cylinder by rotary oscillations at a high

subcritical Reynolds number

Abstract
We report on a numerical study of the vortex structure modifications and drag reduction in a
flow over a rotationally oscillating circular cylinder at a high subcritical Reynolds number, Re =
1.4 × 10^5
. Considered are eight forcing frequencies
f = fe /f0 = 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5 and three forcing amplitudes Ω = ΩeD/2U∞ = 1,2, 3, non-
dimensionalized with f0, which is the natural vortex-shedding frequencywithout forcing, U∞ the
free-stream velocity, D the diameter of the cylinder. In order to perform a parametric study of a
large number of cases (24 in total) with affordable computational resources, the three-
dimensional unsteady computations were performed using a wall-integrated (WIN) second-
moment (Reynolds-stress) Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) turbulence closure, verified
and validated by a dynamic large-eddy simulations (LES) for selected cases ( f = 2.5, Ω = 2 and f =
4, Ω = 2), as well as by the earlier LES and experiments of the flow over a stagnant cylinder at
the same Re number described in Palkin et al. (Flow Turbul. Combust., vol. 97 (4), 2016, pp.
1017–1046). The drag reduction was detected at frequencies equal to and larger than f = 2.5,
while no reduction was observed for the cylinder subjected to oscillations with the natural
frequency, even with very different values of the rotation amplitude. The maximum reduction of
the drag coefficient is 88 % for the highest tested frequency f = 5 and amplitude Ω = 2. However,
a significant reduction of 78 % appears with the increase of f already for f = 2.5 and Ω = 2. Such
a dramatic reduction in the drag coefficient is the consequence of restructuring of the vortex-
shedding topology and a markedly different pressure field featured by a shrinking of the low
pressure region behind the cylinder, all dictated by the rotary oscillation. Despite the need to
expend energy to force cylinder oscillations, the considered drag reduction mechanism seems a
feasible practical option for drag control in some applications for Re > 10^4 , since the
calculated power expenditure for cylinder oscillation under realistic scenarios is several times
smaller than the power saved by the drag reduction.

Conclusion
We performed three-dimensional unsteady simulations of flow over a rotaryoscillating infinite
cylinder for a set of non-dimensional frequencies f = 0.5, 1,1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5 and amplitudes Ω =
1, 2, 3 at a high subcritical Reynolds number, Re = 1.4 × 10^5 , and analysed the effects of
cylinder oscillations on the flow modification and drag reduction. The study confirms the
significant drag reduction for the frequencies larger than 1, which for f = 2.5, Ω = 2 reached 78 %
and even 88 % for f = 5, Ω = 2. These finding are qualitatively in accord with those of Du &
Dalton (2013) and Tokumaru & Dimotakis (1991) who also reported a significant drag reduction
with a maximum effect of 55 %, but for an order of magnitude lower Re number, Re = 1.5 ×
10^4. The analysis confirms the expectation that the rotaryoscillation control reduces the drag
with an increasing efficiency with an increase of the Re number. The main findings are
summarized as follows:
(i) For f 6 1, there is no positive effect in the drag coefficient decrease for almost all tested
amplitudes. The amplitude in CD oscillation increases as the size and strength of the main
vortex grows due to the imposed rotation. The increase of the mean pressure at the rear part of
the cylinder is compensated by a decrease of the mean pressure at the location of the main
vortex which results in a mean drag coefficient that is not much different from the non-rotating
case.

Active Flow Control via Discrete Sweeping and Steady Jets on a Simple-Hinged
Flap
Abstract
Active flow control (AFC) in the form of sweeping jet (SWJ) excitation and discrete steady jet
excitation is used to control the flow separation on a National Advisory Council for Aeronautics
(NACA) 0015 semispan wing with a deflected, simple-hinged, trailing edge flap. This geometry
has been the focus of several recent publications that investigated methods to improve the
efficiency of SWJ actuators. In the current study, the interaction of the AFC excitation with the
separated flowfields of several flap deflection angles was examined. Previous studies with this
model have been limited to a maximum flap deflection angle of 40 deg. The flap deflection
range was extended to 60 deg because systems studies have indicated that a high-lift system
with simple-hinged flaps may require larger flap deflections than the Fowler flaps found on
most high-lift systems. The results obtained at flap deflection angles of 20, 40, and 60 deg are
presented and compared. Force and moment data, particle image velocimetry (PIV) data, and
steady and unsteady surface pressure data are used to describe the flowfield with and without
AFC. With a flap deflection of 60 deg, increasing the SWJ actuator momentum at the flap
shoulder increased lift due to an increase in circulation but did not completely eliminate the
recirculation region above the flap surface. AFC using the discrete steady jet actuators of this
study increased lift as well but required more mass flow than the SWJ actuators and had a
detrimental effect on lift at the highest mass flow level tested. PIV results showed that the angle
between the excitation and the flap surface was not optimal for attaching the separated shear
layer.

Conclusion
Flow physics experiments were performed on a semispan, unswept NACA 0015 with a hinged,
30% chord, TE flap to study the interaction between AFC actuation and the separated shear
layer resulting from deflecting the flap. Previous experiments had been performed on the
model geometry but were limited to aδf40 deg. The primary focus of the current experiments
was to assess the effectiveness of unsteady excitation to control separation on the δf60 deg
configuration, in support of a large-scale high-lift AFC experiment. Steady jet (CD) and SWJ
actuators with a fixed spacing of 3.3 cm were used for the study. The maximum measured
oscillation frequency of the SWJ actuator was 1500 Hz, a value more than an order of
magnitude larger than the natural instabilities in the flowfield. SWJ excitation introduced from
the flap shoulder was effective at flow separation control at lower flap deflections of 20 and 40
deg. However, at the higher flap deflection of 60 deg, flow attachment over the entire flap
surface could not be obtained with the actuation methods investigated using aPR≤2.7.
Nevertheless, both actuators produced an increment in lift, with the SWJ actuators requiring
less input pressure and mass flow. Oil flow images showed that this was due, in part, to the fact
that the SWJ actuators cover a larger extent of the flap span and produce streamwise vortices
that, along with the momentum introduced by the actuators, make them effective at separation
control. Two-dimensional PIV results showed that excitation using discrete sweeping and steady
jets from the flap shoulder was not optimal possibly due to incorrect jet height, spacing, or
location for the 60 deg flap deflection case. Consequently the momentum and the distance
between the streamwise vortices introduced by the excitation and flap surface increased with
downstream distance. Additionally, the steady discrete CD excitation configuration of this study
had a detrimental impact on lift at the highest momentum input levels investigated. The Cμ
levels used for this case and most of the δf60 degcases exceeded, by far, the levels that are
commonly used for active separation control. This approach was taken because we were
interested in understanding the flow attachment process and the actuation requirements for
the large flap deflection and thus adverse pressure gradients of this study. Stereoscopic PIV
results were used to determine, at least in a mean sense, how the excitation interacted with the
flap flowfield. The δf40 degcase was used as a reference because it represented a case where
SWJ excitation was capable of attaching the flow to the flap surface. With effective separation
control, a pair of vortices located on either side of the jet centerline was present in the
flowfield. When separation existed on the flap, as was the case for the δf60 deg, the flap
flowfield was 3D, as seen in both the oil flow and the PIV results. Near the flap shoulder, where
both actuation methods effectively attached the flow to the flap surface, positivesigned
vortices, aligned with the actuator centerlines, were present in the flowfield controlled by the
CD actuators.

Active Flow Control for Low-Pressure Turbines

Abstract
Recent applications of active flow control to the low-pressure turbine section of a gas turbine
are reviewed and evaluated. Unique aspects of the low-pressure turbine flow environment such
as freestream turbulence, secondary flows, and unsteady wakes create challenges for flow
control that must be considered during design and implementation. Applications of four
different active flow control mechanisms to two challenging flow phenomena (separation and
secondary flows) are described in detail. Although significant work is yet required before a
viable active flow control implementation can be fielded, several mechanisms show
considerable promise.

Conclusion
Nearly two decades of research intoactive flow control applications for low-pressure turbines
have been documented, including strategies to mitigate midspan separation and improve
endwall losses. In each case, various control mechanisms have been evaluated including:
blowing, suction, three-dimensional flow structure development, and instability excitation.
Active flow control has been shown to suppress midspan separationon a variety oflow-pressure
turbine (LPT) airfoils with generally favorable results. In terms of“cost”, slot blowing is the most
expensive, followed by steady Vortex-generator jetblowing and then unsteady blowing. Each of
these active flow control (AFC) strategies capitalizes on a different control mechanism. Benefits
of AFC are diminished (but still evident) at elevated freestream turbulence and with wakes.
Compressibility is shown to curtail the range of authority for improving losses with AFC, but an
improvement is still evident. The application of active flow control to manage secondary flows
on LPT airfoils has also yielded favorable results. Suction was effective at eliminating the
horseshoe vortex (HSV), though this was found to be a secondary loss-producing mechanism in
the turbine flowfield. Suction was also useful to remove or redirect the passage vortex (PV),
substantially reducing the corner stall. Steady and pulsed blowing were also found to be
effective in controlling (and attenuating) the PV/HSV system. In terms of cost, suction and
steady blowing are the most expensive, followed by unsteady blowing. Though all of the results
documented herein involved fluidic actuation, the principles are relevant for other actuation
methods including plasma actuators, fluidic oscillators, piezoactuators, combustion-driven
devices, and acoustics. Though the results are generally promising, in every case the addition of
higher-fidelity operating conditions (e.g., compressibility, freestream turbulence, or unsteady
wakes) reduces the effectiveness of the AFC application. Thus, more testing at relevant engine
conditions is recommended before manufacturers will invest heavily in AFC for LPTs.

Role of Klebanoff modes in active flow control of separation: direct numerical

simulations
Our previous research has shown that an active flow control strategy using twodimensional (2-
D) harmonic blowing and suction with properly chosen frequency and amplitude can
significantly reduce the separation region, delay transition to turbulence and can even
relaminarize the flow. How such effective flow control for transition delay and relaminarization
is affected by free-stream turbulence (FST) remains an open question. In order to answer this
question, highly resolved direct numerical simulations (DNS) are carried out where very low-
amplitude isotropic FST fluctuations are introduced at the inflow boundary of the
computational domain.
With FST the effectiveness of the flow control is not diminished, and the extent of the separated
flow region is reduced by the same amount as for the zero FST case. However, a striking
difference observed in the DNS is the fact that in the presence of even very low levels of FST, the
flow transitions shortly downstream of the reattachment location of the bubble, contrary to the
case without FST. It appears that this different behaviour for even very small levels of FST is
caused by an interaction between the high-amplitude 2-D disturbances introduced by the flow
control forcing and 3-D Klebanoff modes (K-modes) that are generated by the FST. The
streamwise elongated streaks due to the K-modes cause a spanwise-periodic modulation of the
basic flow and subsequently of the primary 2-D wave. The disturbances associated with this
modulation exhibit strong growth and initiate the breakdown process to turbulence. Linear
secondary instability investigations with respect to low-frequency 3-D disturbances are carried
out based on the linearized Navier–Stokes equations. The response of the forced flow to the
low-frequency 3-D disturbances reveals that the time-periodic base flow is unstable with
respect to a wide range of 3-D modes. In particular, the wavelength associated with the
spanwise spacing of the K-mode falls into the range of, and is in fact very close to, the most
unstable 3-D disturbances. Results from the secondary instability analysis and the comparison
with DNS results, support the conjecture that the forcing amplitude has a major impact on the
onset and amplification rate of the K-modes: lowering the forcing amplitude postpones the
onset of the growth of the K-modes and reduces the growth rate of the K-modes for a given FST
intensity. The net effect of these two events is a delay of the transition onset. Nevertheless, the
instability mechanism that governs the transition process is the same as previously identified,
i.e. interaction of the K-mode and 2-D primary wave. Furthermore, for low levels of FST, the
amplitude of the low-frequency K-modes scales linearly with the FST intensity in the approach
boundary layer up to the secondary instability regime.

Conclusion
The objective of this paper is to answer the question whether the surprising effectiveness of
selected 2-D harmonic forcing that can lead to relaminarization and transition delay could also
be observed in a realistic wind tunnel operation conditions, i.e. in the presence of free-stream
turbulence. Toward this end, high-resolution DNS of canonical separation bubbles on a flat plate
were carried out and the response to high-amplitude 2-D forcing was investigated in the
absence of and in the presence of FST. Harmonic blowing and suction through a spanwise slot
was shown to be very effective in both environments with respect to reducing the extent of
separation. This was attributed to the shear-layer instability, which amplifies the disturbance
input. Without FST, the controlled flow is virtually two-dimensional and dominated by strong
spanwise vortices (‘rollers’). This suggests that the control is effective in suppressing temporally
growing disturbances. When very low-amplitude isotropic turbulence velocity fluctuations,
which are generated based on a weighted superposition of the continuous modes of the Orr–
Sommerfeld and homogeneous Squire equations, were seeded at the inflow boundary of the
computational domain, the situation changed. With even very low FST level, complete
relaminarization of the flow within the computational domain as observed in the zero FST case,
could no longer be accomplished. In particular, the flow remained laminar only for short
distance downstream of the reattachment location until it transitioned to turbulence. This can
be explained by the fact that in the presence of even very small levels FST, strong interactions
occur between the high-amplitude 2-D disturbance waves introduced by the forcing and 3-D
Klebanoff modes that are excited by the FST.
Based on the results presented here, corroborated by instantaneous flow visualizations, spectral
analysis, modal decomposition and secondary instability investigations, the transition process
for a controlled (forced) LSB subjected to a low level of FST, is governed by the interaction of the
primary 2-D wave with the forcing frequency and the steady (very low-frequency) K-mode and
unsteady disturbance waves with the forcing frequency and with the same spanwise mode
number as the K-mode. Based on the linearized Navier–Stokes equations (without additional
assumptions as required by the standard secondary instability analysis) and using time-
dependent solutions of DNS as a base flow, secondary instability investigations indicated that
the time-periodic, controlled flow is secondarily unstable to broad range of low-frequency 3-D
disturbance waves. The SIA investigations have also shown that the spanwise wavelength
associated with K-mode is very close to that of the most unstable 3-D disturbances. Therefore, it
can be concluded that the K-mode prevails further downstream and dominates the transition
process because it has the largest initial amplitude upstream of the separation location among
all the 3-D disturbances. Detailed investigations were carried out to evaluate the effect of the
forcing amplitude and FST intensity on the effectiveness of the separation control in general and
on the transition process in particular. For all levels of FST and forcing amplitudes investigated,
the underlying instability mechanisms leading to transition were similar, in particular regarding
the interaction of the 3-D K-mode and the 2-D primary wave. However, the response of the
boundary layer with respect to the forcing amplitude and FST intensity were different. For a
given level of FST intensity, a reduction in input forcing amplitude increases the bubble size,
although the convective instability of the mean flow with respect to 2-D disturbances is
increased. Simultaneously, the transition to turbulence is delayed. Two physical mechanisms
appear to play the major role in the delay of boundary-layer transition:
(i) The onset of the strong growth of low-frequency 3-D modes is moved farther downstream,
and (ii) the exponential amplification rate of the K-modes was reduced. On the other hand for a
given forcing amplitude, increasing the intensity of the incoming vortical fluctuations (due to
increased FST), results in virtually identical bubble sizes independent of FST levels for Tu 6 0.05
%. Despite the same bubble sizes, the boundary-layer development downstream of the mean
reattachment location was very sensitive to the FST intensity. While the onset of the growth and
the subsequent amplification rate of the K-mode was almost identical for the levels of FST
intensity examined, laminar-to-turbulent transition occurred further downstream for decreasing
levels of FST. This can be explained by the fact that the growth of the 3-D low-frequency modes
scale linearly with FST intensity. In summary, ‘clean’ simulations where the FST is negligible (zero
FST) is extremely difficult to accomplish in practical wind tunnel experiments. However, in
extremely low FST levels as in free flight, the relaminarization strategy may still be
advantageously employed. The presented results are an important finding as they advance our
fundamental physical understanding of the effect of FST on the separation and separation
control.

Feedback Flow Control: A Heuristic Approach

Abstract
This paper describes a heuristic approach to feedback flow control and illustrate its use for two
flowfields: the flowaround a tangent ogive at large angles of attack and the shear layer behind a
backward-facing step. Bothinvestigations followed the feedback flow control approach laid out
in this paper; however, because of the very different flowfields and control goals, different
techniques were selected for developing the most effective control strategy. The flow
instabilities on the tangent ogive made this flow a good candidate for effective flow control.
Unforced computational and experimental data showed the relevant flow features. With only
four pressure sensors, the relevant flow features were controlled, and a prescribed side force
signal could be tracked. For the shear layer, the control goal was to reduce the optical path
difference, a control goal that cannot easily be observed in experiment or simulation. Using a
wavenet autoregressive exogenous model, a reduction in optical path difference of 40% was
achieved using a sensor array colocated with the aperture. Open-loop simulations showed the
need to capture the effect of forcing startup and shutdown. Adaptive feedback resulted in a
new flow state that the open-loop data had not captured.

Conclusion
This paper laid out an approach to applying feedback flow control and illustrates its use for two
example flowfields: the flow around an tangent ogive forebody at a large angle of attack and the
shear layer behind a backward-facing step. In both investigations, the steps of the approach to
feedback flow control outlined in Fig. 1 were followed; however, because of the very different
flowfields and control goals, different techniques were selected for determining the most
effective control strategy. For the tangent ogive, the goal was to control the side force. Unforced
simulation and experimental data showed the basic flow features and allowed for determining
the sensor placement, as well as control effectiveness. With only four pressure sensors, the
flowfield was adequately described and ultimately controlled (i.e., it was possible to track a
prescribed side-force signal). This flowfield provided a strong instability and was therefore a
good candidate for effective flow control.
For the shear layer, the control goal was to reduce the optical path difference (OPD), which
presented a much more“indirect”goal (i.e., a quantity that is not easily observed in a fluid
dynamic experiment or simulation). Using a wavenet–ARX model of the highly nonlinear
dynamics of the flowfield, a reduction in OPD of 40% was achieved using a sensor array
colocated with the notional aperture. Open-loop simulations showed that capturing the
nonlinearity of the flow response to the forcing input was crucially important because the
salient flow physics (i.e., vortex pairing) was significantly influenced by turning the forcing on
and off. In the end, the adaptive feedback took the flow to a new state that the traditional
open-loop trajectories had not captured, which showed the robustness of the approach and
highlights the performance improvements that are achievable when using feedback flow
control. The heuristic approach described in this paper relies on a thorough understanding of
the dynamics in the flowfield of interest. With this understanding, the flow states can be
defined accurately, and a model that covers the relevant dynamics while reducing the system
complexity can be defined. Arguably, the model development is the crucial step in the process
of developing a feedback flow control method because a broad range of tools is available for
controller development. In the end, the controller effectiveness hinges on the fidelity of the
underlying model.