Electrical and mechanical characteristics of surface AC dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators applied to airflow control

Experiments in Fluids, Nov 2014

The present paper is a wide review on AC surface dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) actuators applied to airflow control. Both electrical and mechanical characteristics of surface DBD are presented and discussed. The first half of the present paper gives the last results concerning typical single plate-to-plate surface DBDs supplied by a sine high voltage. The discharge current, the plasma extension and its morphology are firstly analyzed. Then, time-averaged and time-resolved measurements of the produced electrohydrodynamic force and of the resulting electric wind are commented. The second half of the paper concerns a partial list of approaches having demonstrated a significant modification in the discharge behavior and an increasing of its mechanical performances. Typically, single DBDs can produce mean force and electric wind velocity up to 1 mN/W and 7 m/s, respectively. With multi-DBD designs, velocity up to 11 m/s has been measured and force up to 350 mN/m.

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Electrical and mechanical characteristics of surface AC dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators applied to airflow control

Nicolas Benard 0 Eric Moreau 0 0 N. Benard E. Moreau ( 1 ) Institut PPRIME, Universite de Poitiers (CNRS UPR 3346, ISAE-ENSMA), Boulevard Marie et Pierre Curie , BP 30179, 86962 Futuroscope , France The present paper is a wide review on AC surface dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) actuators applied to airflow control. Both electrical and mechanical characteristics of surface DBD are presented and discussed. The first half of the present paper gives the last results concerning typical single plate-to-plate surface DBDs supplied by a sine high voltage. The discharge current, the plasma extension and its morphology are firstly analyzed. Then, time-averaged and time-resolved measurements of the produced electrohydrodynamic force and of the resulting electric wind are commented. The second half of the paper concerns a partial list of approaches having demonstrated a significant modification in the discharge behavior and an increasing of its mechanical performances. Typically, single DBDs can produce mean force and electric wind velocity up to 1 mN/W and 7 m/s, respectively. With multi-DBD designs, velocity up to 11 m/s has been measured and force up to 350 mN/m. Initially devoted to surface treatment, ozone production or decontamination, weakly ionized gas formed at the surface of a dielectric material emerged as a flow actuator at the end of the 1990s. This new application arose mostly thanks to the pioneer work done at University of Tennessee where the potential of non-thermal surface plasma for producing a thin wall jet was demonstrated (Roth and - Sherman 1998). Then, different groups already having background experiences on corona discharges and their interactions with quiescent or moving flows formed a new highly motivated community that contributes to the dissemination of the advantages and relevancy of non-thermal plasma discharges as an alternative to conventional flow actuators (Moreau 2007; Corke et al. 2009, 2010). Rapidly, the number of publications in journals and conference exponentially grows to finally become a full interdisciplinary research field. The sudden interest for surface dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) energized by AC high voltage for manipulating airflows was initially motivated by the easy implementation of these actuators and a possible retrofitting on existing airfoils. They have the capability to be mounted at the surface of linear or curved objects with a minimal protrusion in the flow. Beside, their location can be changed faster than other active actuators that require a new model for each new position of actuation. The amplitude and frequency of the electrohydrodynamic (EHD) force produced by the surface plasma are directly connected to the driven electrical signal, this being a clear advantage for parametric studies on the sensibility of one flow to well-defined perturbations. Indeed, the EHD force (also referred as EFD force for electro-fluid dynamic) and the resulting produced flow called electric wind or ionic wind are due to electric field that acts on charged species. These charged species are produced by physical phenomena such as ionization, recombination, attachment, detachment and photoionization, which occur at timescale of a few picoseconds (Boeuf et al. 2009a). Subsequently, the produced body force, despite being low-pass filtered by fluid mechanical laws (viscosity, energy exchanges, dissipation) to produce electric wind, has a high bandwidth. Plasma actuators, and more specifically dielectric barrier discharge actuators, have demonstrated their authority to manipulate the dynamics of different flows, such as separated flows (Corke and Post 2005; Little and Samimy 2010; McLaughlin et al. 2006; Benard and Moreau 2011; Kelley et al. 2012; Jukes and Choi 2009), developing shear layers (Sosa et al. 2009a; Benard et al. 2008; Thomas et al. 2008) or boundary layer laminar-to-turbulent transitions (Joussot et al. 2010; Grundmann and Tropea 2007; Hanson et al. 2010). In most of these papers, the actuator is used in context of open-loop control, but plasma discharges find a new route in the construction of closed-loop strategies by using DBD (Lombardi et al. 2012; Benard et al. 2010, 2011; Rethmel et al. 2011; Grundmann and Tropea 2008; Kriegseis et al. 2011a). Instead of manipulating a flow dynamic, the actuator can be used as a generator of predefined perturbations easily tuned by the applied electrical signal (Widmann et al. 2012). Again, this original aspect takes its essence when used in closed-loop approach. Recently, new directions emerge such as the use of plasma discharge as flow sensor (Matlis et al. 2008; Hollick et al. 2011) or adaptive optical lens by plasma discharge (Neiswander et al. 2010). A complete list of studies related to plasma flow interactions for aeronautical applications is no longer possible because the large number of groups in the world working on or using plasma actuators. A part of them focus on the use of plasma discharge for new (...truncated)


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Nicolas Benard, Eric Moreau. Electrical and mechanical characteristics of surface AC dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators applied to airflow control, Experiments in Fluids, 2014, pp. 1846, Volume 55, Issue 11, DOI: 10.1007/s00348-014-1846-x