Parametric studies of an electrohydrodynamic plasma actuator for boundary layer flow control

• An electrohydrodynamic plasma actuator can be used as an aerodynamic flow control device. A plasma actuator is realised as a surface-mounted dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) that transfers directed energy from ions in the discharge to the surrounding air. Parametric studies have been performed in order to investigate the relative efficiency in terms of electrical power into the actuator versus mechanical power in the generated boundary flow. The parametric study includes variations of the applied driving voltage and frequency as well as different electrode and dielectric materials. It is found that, within the range tested, for each value of electrical power into the actuator there exists an optimum driving frequency in terms of boundary layer flow velocity. It is also found that the same trend seems to be true when analyzing electric to mechanical efficiency of the device, i.e. for a given input power there exists an optimum driving frequency that produces the highest efficiency. However, this peak in efficiency of the actuator lies on the edge of the parametric space tested so that further experiments are needed to validate these results.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Annan fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Other Physics Topics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Aerodynamic flow control

Boundary flows

Dielectric barrier discharges

Directed energy

Driving frequencies

Driving voltages

Electrical power

Input power

Mechanical efficiency

Mechanical power

Parametric spaces

Parametric study

Plasma actuator

Relative efficiency

Actuators

Boundary layer flow

Boundary layers

Control

Dielectric devices

Electric discharges

Electric power supplies to apparatus

Electrohydrodynamics

Flow control

Dielectric materials

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)