Study of the influence of current pulse parameters on kinematic and energy characteristics of a plasma actuator based on a moving electric arc

Abstract

In this work, a parametric study of the flow induced during the movement of an arc channel in a transverse constant magnetic field in initially still air is carried out. The analysis of the flow structure, integral energy and kinematic characteristics of the arc acceleration process is carried out. Instantaneous velocity fields in the induced flow were experimentally obtained for the range of discharge current amplitudes from 8 to 160 A and pulse durations from 40 to 380 μs. A parametric study of the flow structure in the wake behind the arc is carried out by the method of two-dimensional numerical simulation in the MHD approximation. In the particular case of a single-mode current pulse, the shape of the current pulse is optimized to maximize the gas momentum in the near-wall region. It is shown that similar conditions for the balance of local acceleration, convective acceleration and viscous forces are observed for the problem of flow past an arc and a cylinder for regimes with a conditionally steady vortex shedding in the wake. In this case, the coincidence of the vortex shedding frequency occurs when the characteristic scale of the streamlined body is chosen equal to half the height of the thermal cavity.