Stabilization of boundary layer streaks by plasma actuators

Abstract

A flow's transition from laminar to turbulent leads to increased levels of skin friction. In recent years, dielectric barrier discharge actuators have been shown to be able to delay the onset of turbulence in boundary layers. While the laminar to turbulent transition process can be initiated by several different instability mechanisms, so far, only stabilization of the Tollmien–Schlichting path to transition has received significant attention, leaving the stabilization of other transition paths using these actuators less explored. To fill that void, a bi-global stability analysis is used here to examine the stabilization of boundary layer streaks in a laminar boundary layer. These streaks, which are important to both transient and by-pass instability mechanisms, are damped by the addition of a flow-wise oriented plasma body force to the boundary layer. Depending on the magnitude of the plasma actuation, this damping can be up to 25% of the perturbation's kinetic energy. The damping mechanism appears to be due to highly localized effects in the immediate vicinity of the body force, and when examined using a linearized Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes energy balance, indicate negative production of the perturbation's kinetic energy. Parametric studies of the stabilization have also been performed, varying the magnitude of the plasma actuator's body force and the spanwise wavenumber of the actuation. Based on these parametric studies, the damping of the boundary layer streaks appears to be linear with respect to the total amount of body force applied to the flow.