Drag reduction of circular cylinder using linear and sawtooth plasma actuators

Abstract

The flow around a single circular cylinder modified by the Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuator is investigated experimentally at a Reynolds number Re = 5.25 × 103. The main purpose of the present study is to establish a comprehensive understanding of the effects of linear and sawtooth DBD plasma actuators (under steady and unsteady actuation modes, with different applied voltage Va, normalized modulation frequency F+, and duty cycle DC) on the time-averaged drag coefficient CD and flow characteristics of the cylinder. Extensive measurements are performed in the near wake of the cylinder using a load cell, hotwire anemometer, flow visualization, and particle image velocimetry techniques. The maximum drag reductions are 58% and 22.8% under the steady and unsteady actuation modes of the linear actuators, respectively, when a voltage of Va = 11 kV is applied. On the other hand, the maximum drag reductions achieved by the steady and unsteady actuation modes of the sawtooth actuators are 51.8% and 53.0%, respectively. The corresponding power efficiencies are 1.6%, 0.9%, 1.4%, and 2.1%, respectively. A detailed examination of the near wake dynamics unveils that the mechanisms behind the substantial drag reductions are quite different for the two different actuators, which account for the difference in drag reduction and efficiency.