Experimental demonstration of low-voltage operated dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators using SiC MOSFETs

Abstract

Successful operation of a multi-stage dielectric-barrier-discharge (DBD) plasma actuator is demonstrated by operating it on voltage one order of magnitude lower than that of a conventional single-stage DBD plasma actuator. An applied voltage waveform of direct current (DC) voltage combined with high-frequency repetitive pulses is generated by a simple power system consisting of a DC power supply and silicon carbide metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors. The time-averaged flow field obtained by particle image velocimetry indicates that a successively accelerated ionic wind is obtained by the eight-stage DBD plasma actuator. The velocity of the induced ionic wind increases with increasing DC voltage and repetitive pulse frequency. The maximum velocity of approximately 4.5 m s−1 is achieved when the DC voltage of is applied with the switching frequency of , suggesting that the proposed multi-stage DBD plasma actuator induces the same level of ionic wind as a conventional high-voltage-operated single-stage DBD plasma actuator, even with a low voltage.

3D Turbulent Boundary Layer Separation Control by Multi-Discharge Plasma Actuator

“…A volume-unidirectional force acting upon the streamwise aerodynamic surface area was generated by multi-discharge plasma actuators of varying design complexity [18][19][20][21][22]. A multi-discharge actuator (MDA) was developed [23], the main advantages of which, over the known schemes, are the simplicity of the design and the possibility of significant miniaturization, that is, reducing the gap between adjacent actuators [24].…”

Surface-charge control strategy for enhanced electrohydrodynamic force in dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators

“…We conducted a numerical simulation of the discharge process in the DBD plasma actuator to clarify the mechanisms of the EHD force enhancement owing to the exposed electrode at downstream and propose a multi-stage DBD plasma actuator, which generates a mutually enhancing EHD force in each actuator module, based on the concept of the prevention of surface charge accumulation [31]. The highly integrated DBD plasma actuator induces the same magnitude of ionic wind velocity (the maximum velocity of 4.5 m s −1 ) using only the DC voltage of 1500 V as a single-stage highvoltage operated DBD plasma actuator [32]. Therefore, the DBD plasma actuator with an exposed electrode at the downstream driven by DC-biased repetitive pulses is a promising candidate as a high-performance DBD plasma actuator.…”