Parametric study of DBD plasma actuator for heat transfer enhancement in flow over a flat plate at low Reynolds numbers

Abstract

The present study intends to find the optimal configurations of Dielectric-Barrier-Discharge (DBD) plasma actuators to augment the thermo-hydraulic performance in air flow over a flat plate at low Reynolds numbers. A range of parametric studies are conducted to determine the impact of the major contributing variables; Reynolds number, voltage frequency, and the applied voltage of the DBD actuator, on the heat transfer. This study reports that in the presence of plasma actuation, the factor of enhancement (Num/Num0) achieves about 3.76. Results show that reducing the Reynolds number and raising the frequency and applied voltage of the DBD actuator improve the factor of enhancement. Furthermore, the plasma system thermal efficiency (PSTE) to achieve the optimized electric power consumption and heat transfer augmentation is introduced as the rate of increase of enhancement factor to the rate of increase of consumed electric power. The frequency and applied voltage for the DBD actuator are used as the design variables to find the optimum configurations. Optimum electric power consumption and configurations of DBD plasma actuator based on Reynolds number are determined. Results also show that Vapp = 10.5 kV and f = 5 kHz conditions for DBD plasma actuator is much beneficial than the other configurations in the presence of low Reynolds number external flow. This study's findings will benefit designers in developing high-performance heat transfer.