Numerical Analysis of Active Control of Flow on a DBD Plasma Actuator Integrated Airfoil

Abstract

In recent years, flow control methods on an airfoil have gained interest. Flow control methods can be classified as passive and active control systems. Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuator is an active control method. A DBD plasma actuator can be defined as; a flow control device, without moving parts and same airfoil shape after installation. In this study, numerical analysis of DBD plasma actuator integrated airfoil was performed. Instead of modeling plasma generation, thermal effects, ionization, and momentum forces, a momentum source term was applied to the airfoil in order to observe the effects of plasma actuator integration on airfoil such as drag, lift, etc. ANSYS Fluent was used in the simulations. The cord length was assumed to be 150 mm. The effects of the attack angles were also investigated with 0°, 5°, 10°, and 15° attack angles. Hexahedral mesh structure was selected in order to model boundary layer with lower y+ values and k-ω SST turbulence model was used. The air velocity was assumed to be 1.9 m/s at the inlet and 200 N/m3 body force was applied to 10 mm after the leading edge for plasma effect analogy.