Abstract
The aim of this work is to systematically quantify and rank the effects of nine different design parameters on the fluid mechanic abilities of a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuator supplied with an alternating current. The ranking and quantification not only consider the parameters themselves but also their interactions with each other. In order to perform this ranking, a Design of Experiment approach is used. This allows the most significant design parameters for the thrust generation, power consumption and thrust to power consumed ratio (force efficiency) of DBD actuator performance to be determined in a systematic way. The results show that the thrust generation is driven by the voltage, distance between the electrodes, AC frequency, and geometry of the exposed electrode, in that order. A high voltage and high frequency, with a thin dielectric, a narrow inter-electrode gap, and a thin and narrow air-electrode results in an increase in the thrust generation.The thrust to power ratio of a DBD is employed as a proxy for the fluid mechanic efficiency. The analysis of the force efficiency shows that the voltage, frequency, distance between the electrodes, and geometry of the air electrode have significant effects. The higher force efficiency is obtained for a high voltage, low frequency, short inter-electrode gap, thin dielectric of low permittivity with a narrow and thin exposed electrode. Finally, two actuators are investigated to determine the best scaling laws for the power consumption as a function of voltage and frequency. In these experiments, the power consumption was a function of voltage to the power of 2.5 and frequency to the power of 1.5. This systematic study of the parameters and their interactions allows general guidelines to be obtained for the best fluid mechanic performance of a DBD, viz. its thrust generation and force efficiency.
Highlights
The standard arrangement of a Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuator consists of two electrodes separated by a dielectric layer
The performance was determined by measuring the thrust generation, power consumption and force efficiency
The thrust generation increases with voltage, and a short separation of the electrodes with a thin dielectric and short inter-electrode gap
Summary
The standard arrangement of a Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuator consists of two electrodes separated by a dielectric layer (see Figure 1). One electrode is encapsulated in a dielectric material, and the second is exposed to air. A high-voltage is applied, resulting in the generation of plasma. The charged species drift between the air-exposed electrode and the surface of the dielectric due to electromagnetic forces. A wall jet is induced by the plasma, as a result of the collisions between the neutral and charged particles. This wall jet can be modeled as a Glauert laminar wall jet [1], that extends a few millimeters over the surface of the actuator [2]
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