Simulation of Direct-Current Surface Plasma Discharges in Air for Supersonic Flow Control

Mahadevan, Shankar; Raja, Laxminarayan L.

doi:10.2514/1.j050993

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…The linear system of equations obtained from the temporal discretization are solved using the generalized minimum residual method (GMRES) that is part of the suite of iterative Krylov Subspace methods available in the PETSc software library [32]. A more detailed description of the numerical scheme can be found in [33].…”

Section: Numerical Schemementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the plasma formulation needs to be coupled to a Navier-Stokes formulation that describes the evolution of the neutral gas flow. Such a plasma-flow coupled framework has been employed in the literature to study supersonic flow control using DC plasma surface discharges [34]. However, for the thermalization problem considered here, the large disparity between the plasma and flow timescales in addition to the fine meshes required to accurately resolve the sheath formed on a length scale of few micrometers in a centimeter scale discharge render the 2D coupled framework computationally expensive.…”

Section: D Non-equilibrium Plasma Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modeling of thermalization phenomena in coaxial plasma accelerators

Subramaniam¹,

PanneerChelvam²,

Raja³

2018

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

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Coaxial plasma accelerators are electromagnetic acceleration devices that employ a self-induced Lorentz force to produce collimated plasma jets with velocities ~50 km s −1 . The accelerator operation is characterized by the formation of an ionization/thermalization zone near gas inlet of the device that continually processes the incoming neutral gas into a highly ionized thermal plasma. In this paper, we present a 1D non-equilibrium plasma model to resolve the plasma formation and the electron-heavy species thermalization phenomena that take place in the thermalization zone. The non-equilibrium model is based on a self-consistent multi-species continuum description of the plasma with finite-rate chemistry. The thermalization zone is modelled by tracking a 1D gas-bit as it convects down the device with an initial gas pressure of 1 atm. The thermalization process occurs in two stages. The first is a plasma production stage, associated with a rapid increase in the charged species number densities facilitated by cathode surface electron emission and volumetric production processes. The production stage results in the formation of a two-temperature plasma with electron energies of ~2.5 eV in a low temperature background gas of ~300 K. The second, a temperature equilibration stage, is characterized by the energy transfer between the electrons and heavy species. The characteristic length scale for thermalization is found to be comparable to axial length of the accelerator thus putting into question the equilibrium magnetohydrodynamics assumption used in modeling coaxial accelerators.

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Section: Numerical Schemementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: D Non-equilibrium Plasma Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling of thermalization phenomena in coaxial plasma accelerators

Subramaniam¹,

PanneerChelvam²,

Raja³

2018

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

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“…Nonsymmetrical effects, as we also observed in our previous work (Menier et al [26,27]), are explained by plasma temperature dependence. Note that no EHD interactions have been observed in the study of Mahadevan and Raja [25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Reviews of plasma applications in high speed aerodynamics are presented in Bletzinger et al [21] and Semenov et al [22]. In a recent paper, Mahadevan and Raja [25] carried out numerical simulations of the coupling between the discharge and the supersonic air flow. They highlighted the importance of including finite rate chemistry effects in discharge models for understanding plasma actuator effect.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visualization by discharge illumination technique and modification by plasma actuator of rarefied Mach 2 airflow around a cylinder

Léger

Sellam

Barbosa

et al. 2013

Meas. Sci. Technol.

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The use of plasma actuators for flow control has received considerable attention in recent years. This kind of device seems to be an appropriate means of raising abilities in flow control thanks to total electric control, no moving parts and a fast response time. The experimental work presented here shows, firstly, the non-intrusive character of the visualization of the density field of an airflow around a cylinder obtained using a plasma luminescence technique. Experiments are made in a continuous supersonic wind tunnel. The static pressure in the flow is 8 Pa, the mean free path is about 0.3 mm and the airflow velocity is 510 m s−1. Pressure measurements obtained by means of glass Pitot tube without the visualization discharge are proposed. Measured and simulated pressure profiles are in good agreement in the region near the cylinder. There is good correlation between numerical simulations of the supersonic flow field, analytical model predictions and experimental flow visualizations obtained by a plasma luminescence technique. Consequently, we show that the plasma luminescence technique is non-intrusive. Secondly, the effect of a dc discharge on a supersonic rarefied air flow around a cylinder is studied. An electrode is flush mounted on the cylinder. Stagnation pressure profiles are examined for different electrode positions on the cylinder. A shock wave modification depending on the electrode location is observed. The discharge placed at the upstream stagnation point induces an upstream shift of the bow shock, whereas a modification of the shock wave shape is observed when it is placed at 45° or 90°.

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“…The subscript k is equal to: i, e, S-levels, P-levels, or D-levels, for ions, electrons, and three types of metastable atoms, respectively. V is the velocity vector of the bulk gas obtained from the rarefied gas module [15]. The electron energy equation is included in LMEA in order to incorporate the nonlocal transport of electrons written as recommended by Hagelaar and Pitchford [16]…”

Section: Ionized Gas Module (Igm)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Rarefied gas electro jet (RGEJ) micro-thruster for space propulsion

Blanco¹,

Roy²

2017

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

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This article numerically investigates a micro-thruster for small satellites which utilizes plasma actuators to heat and accelerate the flow in a micro-channel with rarefied gas in the slip flow regime. The inlet plenum condition is considered at 1 Torr with flow discharging to near vacuum conditions (<0.05 Torr). The Knudsen numbers at the inlet and exit planes are ~0.01 and ~0.1, respectively. Although several studies have been performed in micro-hallow cathode discharges at constant pressure, to our knowledge, an integrated study of the glow discharge physics and resulting fluid flow of a plasma thruster under these low pressure and low Knudsen number conditions is yet to be reported. Numerical simulations of the charge distribution due to gas ionization processes and the resulting rarefied gas flow are performed using an in-house code. The mass flow rate, thrust, specific impulse, power consumption and the thrust effectiveness of the thruster are predicted based on these results. The ionized gas is modelled using local mean energy approximation. An electrically induced body force and a thermal heating source are calculated based on the space separated charge distribution and the ion Joule heating, respectively. The rarefied gas flow with these electric force and heating source is modelled using density-based compressible flow equations with slip flow boundary conditions. The results show that a significant improvement of specific impulse can be achieved over highly optimized cold gas thrusters using the same propellant.

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Simulation of Direct-Current Surface Plasma Discharges in Air for Supersonic Flow Control

Cited by 14 publications

References 59 publications

Modeling of thermalization phenomena in coaxial plasma accelerators

Modeling of thermalization phenomena in coaxial plasma accelerators

Visualization by discharge illumination technique and modification by plasma actuator of rarefied Mach 2 airflow around a cylinder

Rarefied gas electro jet (RGEJ) micro-thruster for space propulsion

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