Design of high-frequency blowing system for flow control

The important role of flow control in the flow modification around objects, energy consumption optimization, performance enhancement, and environmental compatibility is growing during the current decade. Flow can be controlled either actively or passively. Active flow control can lead to negative lift increasing, drag reduction, management of turbulence, delay of separation, and noise reduction. There is also some specific application of flow control for blade cooling in the field of turbomachinery. Due to the importance of natural instability frequency in wake region and its relationship with flow control, the use of active flow control by pulsed blowing flow has become increasingly important. The absence of such a device in Iran that generates pulsing flow in a vast frequency range was greatly felt. This device can generate frequencies of up to 125 Hz which is used for laboratories, industrial applications, and scientific research instruments. The system which is designed in this paper mainly consists of a microcontroller that can control several solenoid valves through Arduino and auxiliary board. After designing and making the prototype of this device, the verifications were performed through different instruments with high sensitivity and small-time intervals for data acquisition such as hotwire and pressure sensors. Based on the results of these instruments, the designing process was successful with considering the goals which were set for this device, and a decent performance in operating frequencies and commands was observed.

Keywords:

Active flow control , Pulsed blowing flow , Solenoid valve , Microcontroller