Interactions between vortex generators and a flat plate boundary layer. Application to the control of separated flows.

Vortex generators (VG) are among the most popular actuators for flow control. more or less interact with each other depending on many parameters like the size of the VGs or the spacing between each VG (Betterton et al. (2000); Godard ' Stanislas (2006)). From a general point of view, the 3D steady (or unsteady) perturbations induced by the VG are used to modify a boundary layer in order to control some global properties of the flow like heat transfer or aerodynamic forces (Lin (2002); Duriez et al. (2008)). One of the main difficulty in using VG is the large number of parameters the experimentalist has to choose: the type of VG (mechanical or fluidic, stationary or time-dependant), the dimensions, the spacing, the location relative to the flow to be controlled. In this paper we propose a short review describing the structures of the flows produced by two different mechanical VG (trapezoidal blades and cylinders) and continuous jets in a flat-plate boundary layer. The drawback and advantages of each of them will be underlined. The way the longitudinal structures interact with a flat plate boundary layer will also be discussed. In the case of small cylinders it will be shown that one can define new physical properties that can be helpful to choose the proper parameters in the perspective of control of flow separation.