Overview of ONERA Fluidic Actuators in Aerodynamics

In aerodynamics fluidic actuators are used to modify the main flow around vehicles by injecting a secondary flow on its surface through slots or holes. The interaction of this secondary flow aims at improving the aerodynamic performance of the vehicle. Today, in most of the cases, numerical simulations allow to follow the evolution of all flow variables in the external flow as well as inside the fluidic actuators. Nevertheless it is still necessary to validate these numerical simulations. For many years, studies in the field of flow control applied to aircraft have led to experiments on scaled wind tunnel models equipped with such fluidic actuators to facilitate the certification of flow control solutions for various applications. The objective of the present paper is to present an overview of actuators developed and tested at ONERA for active flow control.