Electrical and thermal characterization of near-surface electrical discharge plasma actuation driven by radio frequency voltage at low pressure**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11472306, 51407197, and 51507187).

Abstract

The electrical and thermal characterization of near-surface electrical discharge plasma driven by radio frequency voltage are investigated experimentally in this paper. The influences of operating pressure, electrode distance, and duty cycle on the discharge are studied. When pressure reaches 60 Torr (1 Torr = 1.33322 × 102 Pa) the transition from diffuse glow mode to constricted mode occurs. With the operating pressure varying from 10 Torr to 60 Torr, the discharge energy calculated from the charge–voltage (Q–V) Lissajous figure decreases rapidly, while it remains unchanged between 60 Torr and 460 Torr. Under certain experimental conditions, there exists an optimized electrode distance (8 mm). As the duty cycle of applied voltage increases, the voltage–current waveforms and Q–V Lissajous figures show no distinct changes.