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.

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.

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.