Numerical study of flow separation control over a circular hump using synthetic jet actuators

This study deals with the wall resolved Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulation of boundary layer flow separation over a circular hump model and its active control. An array of Synthetic Jet Actuators (SJAs) is implemented in the hump model to introduce a train of vortex rings into the boundary layer to control flow separation. The OpenFOAM solver is used to numerically simulate and analyze the fluid flow using the k– ω shear stress transport model. Hot wire anemometry and particle image velocimetry measurements are carried out to evaluate the accuracy of the URANS technique as well as the effectiveness of SJAs by comparing numerical predictions to experimental data. The time-averaged results are in a good agreement with experimental results and demonstrate a successful application of SJAs to delay the flow separation by the interactions of vortical structures with the separated shear flow. The three-dimensional simulation also reveals that near wall coherent flow structures (streamwise and spanwise vortices) are responsible for the wall shear stress components. The results can be used to better understand the performance of SJAs and to further improve future actuator configurations.