Thermal characterisation of dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuation driven by radio frequency voltage at low pressure

Abstract

In this study, the thermal characterisation of dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuation driven by radio frequency (RF) voltage waveform at low pressure is studied. The RF discharge images and voltage–current waveforms are quite different under 3 and 40 kPa. The thermographic method has been proposed for the spatial–temporal temperature field on the actuator surface . At 3 kPa, the high-temperature region is mainly concentrated on the surface of the high-voltage electrode. Along the spanwise direction, the surface temperature gradually increases until it reaches the maximum at the edge of the electrode and then decreases. Similarly, in the chordwise direction, there also exists the maximum value on the surface of the electrode. After discharge starts, the surface temperature rises rapidly, and subsequently, the increasing slope of temperature curves gradually decreases until thermal equilibrium has been reached at about 100 s. The effects of the pressure, duty cycle, and operating power on the thermal characterisation are also investigated experimentally. At low pressure, the discharge mode is diffuse glow discharge, and the high-temperature region covers the whole electrode. As the pressure increases the surface temperature ascends non-linearly, while the surface temperature is linearly dependent on the duty cycle and operating power.