A plasma‐fluid model for EHD flow in DBD actuators and experimental validation

Abstract

Summary A numerical method to simulate plasma induced electrohydrodynamic flow is proposed in this study. The numerical model consists of three components. Firstly, a potential module to simulate temporal potential and electric field generated in the ionized fluid. Secondly, a plasma module to simulate plasma development and charge particle densities. Finally, a fluid module to simulate the flow affected by the body forces induced by the movement of the charged particles. Fluid flow is modeled using modified predictor‐corrector strategy as proposed in the marker and cell method. The velocity field was corrected to achieve incompressible flow by calculating pressure correction factors, considered in all cells. Numerical convergence and time sensitivity analysis were carried to confirm grid independence and determine an efficient time step for simulations. Numerical computations are validated by comparing with experimental results of discharge currents and current densities. They were found to be in very good agreement thus providing an extensive validation. Furthermore, quiescent flow over a dielectric barrier discharge actuator is simulated in the this study, using the proposed plasma‐fluid model, to model flow evolution and resolve temporal flow features for detailed analysis. The streamline and vorticity plots were analyzed and compared with experimental results, and flow results were found to be in‐line with the experiments.

The electrohydrodynamic force distribution in surface AC dielectric barrier discharge actuators: do streamers dictate the ionic wind profiles?

“…Similar physical models have been used extensively in the simulation of AC-SDBDs in atmospheric air (Ref. [7,37,38,1,36]) providing sufficient agreement with experimental findings for the purpose of this work. We note that two of the major assumptions made in the current modeling the SDBD are the neglection of photoionization and the assumption of two-dimensional evolution.…”

“…Appropriate boundary conditions are implemented to ensure the self-consistency of the simulation (including secondary electron emission and dielectric charging). Similar physical models have been used extensively in the simulation of AC-SDBDs in atmospheric air [1,7,[36][37][38]) providing sufficient agreement with experimental findings for the purpose of this work. We note that two of the major assumptions made in the current modeling the SDBD are the neglection of photoionization and the assumption of two-dimensional evolution.…”

A new plasma actuator configuration for improved efficiency: the stair-shaped dielectric barrier discharge actuator

“…Numerical simulations presented in figure 1 also prove that by reducing the actuator thickness the entire velocity field is affected and induced flow velocities increase. Numerical results presented in figure 1 were performed using the plasma-fluid model presented in Mushyam et al [39]. These results show that by decreasing the dielectric layer thickness we increase the induced flow velocity without changing the applied voltage and frequency levels.…”

Flow reversal in millimetric annular DBD plasma actuator

“…This model has been qualitatively verified for atmospheric pressure plasma discharges [16], and has been used for detailed descriptions of linear DBD plasma actuators and related EHD force production [20,21]. Models which utilise the same assumptions have been extensively validated with experimental findings [22,23].…”