Experimental investigation of surface dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator based on fluorinated polyimide

Abstract

In this paper, the mechanical performance, dielectric lifetime and material properties of the fluorinated polyimide (F-PI) based surface dielectric barrier discharge (SDBD) plasma actuator are studied and compared with a conventional polyimide (PI) based actuator. The results show that the force efficiency of the F-PI based actuator kept almost unchanged during 20 h of plasma discharge aging. Besides, dielectric lifetime of the F-PI based actuator was about three times as long as the PI based actuator at the applied sine voltage of 10 kV and frequency of 6 kHz. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images show that surface of the F-PI based actuator became more rough but kept integrated after aging, while that of the PI based actuator was severely etched by plasma. And the maximum surface temperature of the F-PI based actuator was about 18% lower than that of the PI based actuator. Furthermore, it was confirmed by X–ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) that CF and CFn groups were incorporated onto the surface of the dielectric after fluorination, which was conductive to longer dielectric lifetime.