Integrated design and performance optimization of three-electrode sliding discharge plasma power supply

The three-electrode sliding dielectric barrier discharge(TES-DBD) plasma actuator significantly enhances the ionization rate and momentum exchange between charged particles and neutral particles by incorporating a parallel DC electrode into the standard DBD design. This design improves the body force and induced jet velocity while allowing flexible control of the induced jet angle, overcoming the limitations of discharge extension and uncontrollable direction in traditional DBD plasma actuators. An integrated plasma power supply has been designed specifically for TES-DBD plasma actuators, streamlining the power supply management. The methodology involves designing the circuit topology for the TES-DBD power supply, followed by simulating and validating its operating principles using Multisim software. The operational performance of the power supply is evaluated through a comprehensive analysis of its electrical,thermal, and aerodynamic properties specific to TES-DBD plasma actuation.

Flow control performance evaluation of a tri-electrode sliding discharge plasma actuator

Tri-electrode sliding discharge(TED)plasma actuators are formed by adding a direct current(DC)exposed electrode to conventional dielectric barrier discharge(DBD)plasma actuators.There are three TED modes depending on the polarity and amplitude of the DC supply:DBD discharge,extended discharge and sliding discharge.This paper evaluates the electrical,aerodynamic and mechanical characteristics of a TED plasma actuator based on energy analysis,particle image velocimetry experiments and calculations using the Navier-Stokes equation.The flow control performances of different discharge modes are quantitatively analyzed based on characteristic parameters.The results show that flow control performance in both extended discharge and sliding discharge is more significant than that of DBD,mainly because of the significantly higher(up to 141%)body force of TED compared with DBD.However,conductivity loss is the primary power loss caused by the DC polarity for TED discharge.Therefore,power consumption can be reduced by optimizing the dielectric material and thickness,thus improving the flow control performance of plasma actuators.

Experimental and numerical investigation of a self-supplementing dual-cavity plasma synthetic jet actuator

The primary issue regarding the plasma synthetic jet actuator(PSJA)is its performance attenuation at high frequencies.To solve this issue,a self-supplementing,dual-cavity,plasma synthetic jet actuator(SD-PSJA)is designed,and the static properties of the SD-PSJA are investigated through experiments and numerical simulations.The pressure measurement shows that the SD-PSJA has two saturation frequencies(1200 Hz and 2100 Hz),and the experimental results show that both the saturation frequencies decrease as the volume of the bottom cavity of the SD-PSJA increases.As the size of the supplement hole increases,the first saturation frequency increases continuously,while the second saturation frequency shows a trend of first decreasing and then increasing.Numerical simulations show that the working process of the SD-PSJA is similar to that of the PSJA,but the volume of the cavity in the SD-PSJA is smaller than that of the PSJA;the SD-PSJA can supplement air to the top cavity through two holes,thus reducing the refresh time and effectively improving the jet intensity of the actuator at high frequencies.

Reduction of turbulent boundary layer drag through dielectric-barrier-discharge plasma actuation based on the Spalding formula

It is a very difficult task to develop a method of reducing turbulent boundary layer drag.However,in recent years,plasma flow control technology has demonstrated huge potential in friction drag reduction.To further investigate this issue,a smooth plate model was designed as a testing object arranged with a bidirectional dielectric-barrier-discharge(DBD)plasma actuator.In addition,measurement of skin friction drag was achieved by applying hot wire anemometry to obtain the velocity distribution of the turbulent boundary layer.A method of quantifying the friction drag effect was adopted based on the Spalding formula fitted with the experiment data.When plasma actuation was conducted,a velocity defect occurred at the two measuring positions,compared with the no plasma control condition;this means that the DBD plasma actuation could reduce the drag successfully in the downstream of the actuator.Moreover,drag reduction caused by backward actuation was slightly more efficient than that caused by forward actuation.With an increasing distance from plasma actuation,the drag-reduction effect could become weaker.Experimental results also show that the improvement of drag-reduction efficiency using a DBD plasma actuator can achieve about 8.78%in the local region of the experimental flat model.

Turbulent drag reduction by spanwise slot blowing pulsed plasma actuation

This work studies the turbulent drag reduction(TDR)effect of a flat plate model using a spanwise slot blowing pulsed plasma actuator(SBP-PA).Wind tunnel experiments are carried out under a Reynolds number of 1.445×10^(4).Using a hot-wire anemometer and an electrical data acquisition system,the influences of millisecond pulsed plasma actuation with different burst frequencies and duty cycles on the microscale coherent structures near the wall of the turbulent boundary layer(TBL)are studied.The experimental results show that the SBP-PA can effectively reduce the frictional drag of the TBL.When the duty cycle exceeds 30%,the TDR rate is greater than 11%,and the optimal drag reduction rate of 13.69%is obtained at a duty cycle of 50%.Furthermore,optimizing the electrical parameters reveals that increasing the burst frequency significantly reduces the velocity distribution in the logarithmic region of the TBL.When the normalized burst frequency reaches f+=2πf_(p)d/U_(∞)=7.196,the optimal TDR effectiveness is 16.97%,indicating a resonance phenomenon between the pulsed plasma actuation and the microscale coherent structures near the wall.Therefore,reasonably selecting the electrical parameters of the plasma actuator is expected to significantly improve the TDR effect.

Forebody asymmetric vortex control with extended dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators

Plasma control of forebody asymmetric vortices is mostly achieved by means of dielectric barrier discharge(DBD)plasma actuators. However, DBD actuators suffer from some disadvantages such as a weak induced body force, a singledirection induced jet, and an unclear control mechanism. We carry out wind tunnel experiments involving the forebody vortex control of a slender body at high angles of attack using an innovative extended DBD actuator, which has a stronger capacity to induce an electric wind than a DBD actuator. Through synchronous measurements of the pressure distribution and particle image velocimetry(PIV), the spatiotemporal evolution of the dynamic interactions between plasma-actuationinduced vortices and forebody asymmetric vortices is analyzed. The influence of plasma discharge on the boundary layer separation around a slender body and the spatial topological structures of asymmetric vortices are further surveyed, as the optimized actuation parameters. Extended DBD actuators are found to be more capable of controlling asymmetric vortices than DBD actuators, and a linear proportionality of the sectional lateral force versus the duty ratio is achieved.There exists an optimal normalized reduced frequency( f+= 2π fpd/U∞= 2.39) for asymmetric vortex control under the present experimental conditions. The research results can provide technical guidance for the control and reuse of forebody asymmetric vortices.

Electrical and aerodynamic characteristics of sliding discharge based on a microsecond pulsed plasma supply

Plasma flow control technology has broad prospects for application.Compared with conventional dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators(DBD-PA),the sliding discharge plasma actuator(SD-PA)has the advantages of a large discharge area and a deflectable induced jet.To achieve the basic performance requirements of light weight,low cost,and high reliability required for UAV(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle)plasma flight experiments,this work designed a microsecond pulse plasma supply that can be used for sliding discharge plasma actuators.In this study,the topology of the primary circuit of the microsecond pulse supply is determined,the waveform of the output terminal of the microsecond pulse plasma supply is detected using the Simulink simulation platform,and the design of the actuation voltage,the pulse frequency modulation function and the construction of the hardware circuit are achieved.Using electrical diagnosis and flow field analysis,the actuation characteristics and flow characteristics of sliding discharge plasma under microsecond pulse actuation are studied,the optimal electrical actuation parameters and flow field characteristics are described.

Effect of exogenous flavins on the microbial corrosion by Geobacter sulfurreducens via iron-to-microbe electron transfer

Microbes can cause or accelerate metal corrosion,leading to huge losses in corrosion damages each year.Geobacter sulfurreducens is a representative electroactive bacterium in many soils,sediments,and wastew-ater systems.It has been confirmed to directly extract electrons from elemental metals.However,little is known about the effect of electron shuttles in G.sulfurreducens corrosion on stainless steel.In this study,we report that exogenous flavins promote iron-to-microbe electron transfer,accelerating micro-bial corrosion.G.sulfurreducens caused 1.3 times deeper pits and increased electron uptake(with 2 times increase of i_(corr))from stainless steel when riboflavin was added to the culture medium.OmcS-deficient mutant data suggest that G.sulfurreducens utilizes riboflavin as a bound-cofactor in outer membrane c-type cytochromes.The finding that,in the presence of microbes,riboflavin can substantially accelerate corrosion highlights the role of flavin redox cycling for enhanced iron-to-microbe electron transfer by G.sulfurreducens and provides new insights in microbial corrosion.

Minimizing airfoil drag at low angles of attack with DBD-based turbulent drag reduction methods

Dielectric Barrier Discharge(DBD)based turbulent drag reduction methods are used to reduce the total drag on a NACA 0012 airfoil at low angels of attack.The interaction of DBD with turbulent boundary layer was investigated,based on which the drag reduction experiments were conducted.The results show that unidirectional steady discharge is more effective than oscillating discharge in terms of drag reduction,while steady impinging discharge fails to finish the mission(i.e.drag increase).In the best scenario,a maximum relative drag reduction as high as 64%is achieved at the freestream velocity of 5 m/s,and a drag reduction of 13.7%keeps existing at the freestream velocity of 20 m/s.For unidirectional discharge,the jet velocity ratio and the dimensionless actuator spacing are the two key parameters affecting the effectiveness.The drag reduction magnitude varies inversely with the dimensionless spacing,and a threshold value of the dimensionless actuator spac-ing of 540(approximately five times of the low-speed streak spacing)exists,above which the drag increases.When the jet velocity ratio smaller than 0.05,marginal drag variation is observed.In con-trast,when the jet velocity ratio larger than 0.05,the experimental data bifurcates,one into the drag increase zone and the other into the drag reduction zone,depending on the value of dimensionless actuator spacing.In both zones,the drag variation magnitude increases with the jet velocity ratio.The total drag reduction can be divided into the reduction in pressure drag and turbulent friction drag,as well as the increase in friction drag brought by transition promotion.The reduction in tur-bulent friction drag plays an important role in the total drag reduction.

Electrically conductive nanowires controlled one pivotal route in energy harvest and microbial corrosion via direct metal-microbe electron transfer

Extracellular electron transfer(EET)plays a critical role in bioelectrochemical processes,allowing cou-pling between microorganisms and extracellular solid-state electrodes,metals,or other cells in energy metabolism.Previous studies have suggested a role for outer-surface c-type cytochromes in direct metal-to-microbe electron transfer by Geobacter sulfurreducens,a model electroactive bacterium.Here,we ex-amined the possibility of other microbially produced electrical contacts by deleting the gene for PilA,the protein monomer that G.sulfurreducens assembles into electrically conductive protein nanowires(e-pili).Deleting pilA gene inhibited electron extraction from pure iron and 316L stainless steel up to 31%and 81%,respectively more than deleting the gene for the outer-surface cytochrome OmcS.This PilA-deficient phenotype,and the observation that relatively thick biofilms(21.7μm)grew on the metal surfaces at multi-cell distances from the metal surfaces suggest that e-pili contributed significantly to microbial cor-rosion via direct metal-to-microbe electron transfer.These results have implications for the fundamental understanding of electron harvest via e-pili by electroactive microbes,their uses in bioenergy production,as well as in monitoring and mitigation of metal biocorrosion.

Spatiotemporal evolution laws of sector-shaped dielectric-barrier-discharge plasma actuator

Dielectric barrier discharge(DBD)plasma actuators are widely used in active flow control due to their simple design and rapid responsiveness.However,they need more effectiveness and discharge extension.To overcome these limitations,a sector-shaped dielectric barrier discharge(SS-DBD)plasma actuator with an adjustable jet angle was developed to enhance flow control effectiveness.The flow field dynamics induced by the SS-DBD plasma actuator were quantitatively analyzed using particle image velocimetry(PIV).Experimental investigations showed that precise adjustments to the actuation voltage can modulate the maximum velocity of the induced jet.Furthermore,a quasi-linear relationship between the sector-shaped angles of the SS-DBD and the deflected jet angles was established,indicating that changes in the sector-shaped angles directly influence the direction of the deflected jet.This correlation enables precise control over jet angles,significantly enhancing flow control by adjusting the SS-DBD-PA's sector-shaped angle.