A Comparison of Circular and Slotted Synthetic Jets for Flow Control in a Twin Air Intake

Krishnakumar Rajnath Yadav; Akshoy Ranjan Paul; Nithin Hegde; Anuj Jain

doi:10.14429/dsj.70.13053

Krishnakumar Rajnath Yadav Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Prayagraj - 211 004
Akshoy Ranjan Paul Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Prayagraj - 211 004
Nithin Hegde Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Prayagraj - 211 004
Anuj Jain Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Prayagraj - 211 004

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14429/dsj.70.13053

Keywords: Twin air-intake, Flow control, Synthetic jet, Vorticity, Static pressure recovery, Distortion coefficient

Abstract

The performance of an aircraft engine depends on air flow quality at the engine face / the exit of the air-intake also known as aerodynamic inlet plane (AIP). A single-engine aircraft has complex Y-shaped twin air-intake which causes severe flow separation, distortion and flow non-uniformity at the AIP. The present study compares the efficacy of slotted synthetic jet and a row of four circular synthetic jets attached to inner faces of a twin air-intake to improve aerodynamic performance at the AIP. The results are obtained using computational fluid dynamics. The velocity and vorticity plots show that lateral spread of the circular jets is limited as compared to the slotted jet. The circular jets are found to be weak as compared to slotted jet to prevent separation of main flow occurring in the twin air-intake. The various aerodynamic performance parameters, such as static pressure recovery coefficient, total pressure loss coefficient, distortion coefficient and secondary flow uniformity are compared for both the cases, exhibiting marked improvement in all these parameters. The study demonstrates that the slotted synthetic jets is a better option for controlling flow in twin air-intake as compared to a row of circular synthetic jets.

Author Biographies

Krishnakumar Rajnath Yadav, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Prayagraj - 211 004

Mr Krishakumar Rajnath Yadav completed BTech (Mechanical Engineering) from Mumbai and MTech (Mechanical Engineering) from NIT Patna. He specialises in fluid mechanics and refrigeration engineering and has published a few research papers in aerodynamics and thermo-fluids engineering in refereed journals and international conferences. He is currently pursuing PhD from MNNIT Allahabad.

Akshoy Ranjan Paul, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Prayagraj - 211 004

Dr Akshoy Ranjan Paul has received BTech and MTech in Mechanical Engineering, while he did PhD from MNNIT Allahabad. He is an Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Mechanics, MNNIT Allahabad, India and is involved in teaching and research for 18 years. He has published over 125 research papers on experimental fluid dynamics, flow control, CFD and green energy and wrote four textbooks. He is the reviewers of many journals and conducted various conferences, workshops, short-term courses on a plethora of topics. He has handled four externally funded research projects so far.

Nithin Hegde, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Prayagraj - 211 004

Mr Nithin Hegde did his bachelor’s in Aeronautical Engineering and later completed MTech (Fluids Engineering) from MNNIT Allahabad. He specialises in computational modelling of internal flows and published some research papers in conferences to his credit. Presently he is working in Cummins India Ltd., Pune.

Anuj Jain, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, Prayagraj - 211 004

Dr Anuj Jain has completed his PhD in Chemical Engineering from IIT Roorkee. Currently he is a Professor at the Department of Applied Mechanics, MNNIT Allahabad, India. He has over 30 years of research experience in thermo-fluid flows, multiphase flows and bio-fluid dynamics and has published over 150 research articles in peer-reviewed journals and reputed conferences in India and abroad. He served at various academic and administrative positions during his career, authored two textbooks, supervised numerous MTech and PhD theses and handled three government sponsored research projects.

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