Influence of synthetic jet location on boundary layer separation control

When synthetic jet actuators are used to control flow separation in practical situations, it is anticipated that the orifices will be distributed in the form of an array. Wind tunnel experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of the location and number of these actuators on boundary layer separation. Three synthetic jets were located upstream of the separation point in undisturbed flow, and the mean and root mean-square (RMS) velocity profiles were measured at several axial locations within the separated flow region. This paper reports the effect of actuator placement and the integrated effectiveness of two and three synthetic jets with different forcing voltages and frequencies.