The present paper describes the applicability of the flow control device, mini actuators attached on the leading edge of an airfoil, for the flow separation control under unsteady flow condition in the low Reynolds number region. Lift and drag have been measured for a wide variety of the wind speeds (Reynolds numbers) and the angles of attack. Then, effects of simple feedback flow control, where the time-dependent signal of the lift-drag ratio has been used as an input to detect the stall and served as a trigger to start the actuation, have been explored under the unsteady flow condition for evading the stall.
For every Reynolds number from 30,000 to 80,000, the actuators worked quite well to delay the stall, increasing both in the lift and the stall angle of attack. Then, threshold value of the lift-drag ratio was determined to detect the stall. Effectiveness of the feedback control of the actuation was demonstrated under the condition of the wind speed decrease which would lead to the stall if no-actuation. Immediately after the velocity decrease, the decrease in the lift-drag ratio below the threshold were detected and the dynamic actuations were started, resulting in evading the stall and keeping high lift. The additional operation of the feedback, stopping the actuation when the lift-drag ratio showed lower than the second threshold, was revealed effective to keep the high lift force under the condition combined with the wind speed increase and decrease.
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