Active Flow Control of Supersonic Jet Using Streamwise Pulsed Blowing

The present study investigates a novel control strategy to create a sweeping oscillatory jet using fluidic actuation principle. A supersonic underexpanded primary jet issued into a suddenly expanding duct is oscillated by giving cyclic pulsed secondary jet blowing in the top and bottom step regions of the suddenly expanding duct. The current study employs the bistable nature of jet expansion seen in a suddenly expanding duct for the jet oscillation. The cyclic perturbations (pulsed secondary jet blowing) given in the streamwise direction switch the direction of the asymmetric jet expansion of the underexpanded primary supersonic jet to the top and bottom wall alternatively, thereby creating an oscillatory supersonic jet. It is found that the switching of the direction of the primary jet to any one wall is caused by the Coanda effect produced by the secondary jet issued in the corresponding wall side. The results show that the primary jet quickly responds to the secondary jet perturbations and that the supersonic primary jet oscillation frequency nearly matches secondary jet perturbation frequency. A parametric study to investigate the jet oscillation characteristics with various secondary jet oscillation frequencies and mass flow rate ratios are also being carried out in the present study. It is found that the jet oscillation frequency increases with increase in the secondary jet pulsation frequency. The jet deflection is found to increase with increase in the secondary jet to primary jet mass flow ratio (blowing ratio) up to a critical limit, after which the increment in jet deflection ceases due to the restrictions imposed by the duct geometry.