Experimental study of the detachment and the reattachment of an airflow along an inclined wall controlled by a surface corona discharge-application to a plane turbulent mixing layer

This paper analyzes experimentally the ability of an electrohydrodynamic actuator to modify the properties of a plane turbulent mixing layer in the wake region of an inclined flat plate (expansion corner). The experiments consists of applying a surface corona discharge established between two electrodes flush mounted on the surface of the test profile. Two cases are investigated. First, one considers the application of the corona to an airflow which is naturally detached at the trailing edge of the test profile and the experiments is repeated with an airflow naturally attached. In this paper, the behavior of the discharge with free air stream up to 35 m/s and measurements by particle image velocimetry for a velocity range from 6 to 16 m/s are presented. The results show that: 1) the discharge regime depends on the free air stream velocity; 2) when the airflow is naturally detached, the corona discharge allows increasing the velocity and the thickness of the mixing layer; 3) when the airflow is naturally attached, it is possible to reduce the velocity and to increase the thickness of the mixing layer; and 4) using a pulse discharge, one observes that the effect of the actuator on the mixing layer is different according to the discharge frequency.