Study on propagation mechanisms of the actuations generated by plasma synthetic jet actuator in a supersonic flow

The plasma synthetic jet actuator (PSJA) has a potential application in the flow control, especially for the supersonic and hypersonic flow. In order to make a deeper understanding on the propagation processes of the actuation generated by the PSJA in a supersonic flow, both the schlieren experiment and the numerical simulation are adopted for the analyses. Based on the analytic geometry method, the propagation of the diffracted wave, the synthetic jet and the dis-charged heat are discussed in detail. The effects of the mainstream Mach number and the discharge strength on the propagation processes are also deeply analyzed. Besides, an analytic model and relevant motion equations are established for the forecast of the actuations. The results suggest that the 1st diffracted wave expands around and propagates along the mainstream direction. The synthetic jet will change the start point of the oblique wave. Further, the propagation of the dis-charged heat is also related to the mainstream.