Experimental Study of Rotor Flow Separation Control using a New Type of Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Actuator

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Flow separation occurring on rotor blades is an important limiting factor for helicopter performance. This paper presents a new type of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuator for rotor blade flow separation control called bipolar DBD plasma actuator. The bipolar DBD plasma actuator’s connection mode differs from traditional plasma actuators and eliminates reverse discharge between electrodes. The experiments in this work were carried out by smoke-wire flow visualization and PIV technology in the open test section of a low speed wind tunnel, and solved the problem of high voltage electricity supplied to the plasma actuator while the rotor rotated. In this experiment, the rotor, camera, and laser were synchronized to obtain results. Smoke-wire results and PIV results illustrated that the flow separation weakened with increasing rotor speed; the separated flow area was large at a rotating speed of 300 r/min and gradually became smaller at the rotating speed of 600 r/min, the flow separation disappeared at the rotating speed of 1200 r/min. When the plasma was active, both smoke-wire results and PIV results showed the flow separation area was greatly reduced at the rotating speed of 300 r/min and disappeared at the rotating speeds of 600 r/min and 1200 r/min, the rotor flow separation at high angles of attack could be effectively controlled by the new DBD plasma actuator.