Effects of Perforated Plates on Shock Structure Alteration for NACA0012 Cascade Configurations

To alleviate the shock boundary layer interaction adverse effects, various active or passive flow control strategies have been investigated in the literature. This research sheds light on the behavior of perforated plates as passive flow control techniques applied to NACA0012 airfoils in cascade configurations. Two identical perforated plates with shallow cavities underneath are accommodated on the upper and lower surfaces of each airfoil in the cascade arrangement. Six different cascade arrangements, including a baseline configuration with no control applied, are additively manufactured, with different perforated plate orifice sizes in the range of 0.5–1.2 mm. A high-speed wind tunnel with Schlieren optical diagnosis and wall static pressure taps is used to investigate the changes in the shock waves pattern triggered by the perforated plates. Steady 3D density-based numerical simulations in Ansys FLUENT are conducted for further analysis and validation. In the cascade configuration, the perforated plates alter the shock structure, and the strong normal shock wave is replaced by a weaker X-type shock structure. Eventually, a 1% penalty in overall total pressure loss is induced by the perforated plates because of the negative loss balance between the reduced shock losses and the enhanced viscous losses. Further studies on perforated plate geometrical features are needed to improve this outcome in a cascade arrangement.