Surrogate Modeling for Characterizing the Performance of Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Actuator

Abstract

The dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuator offers promising opportunities for flow control because it does not require mass injection and involves no moving mechanical components. In order to gain better understanding of the impact of the materials and operational parameters on the performance of the DBD actuator, and to facilitate design of effective control schemes, the surrogate modeling technique is adopted. The model is established based on three design variables, namely (i) frequency of the applied voltage, (ii) dielectric constant of the insulator, and (iii) polarity (positive/negative) time ratio of the applied waveform, and focuses on two objectives, namely, (i) net force generated, and (ii) power requirement. The 2-species fluid plasma model with helium as a working gas is used in the computational model to generate the data needed by the surrogate model. Multiple surrogate models are compared to enhance the robustness of the surrogate performance. There exist multiple Pareto fronts where the x-directional force is positive with relatively low power and negative with high power respectively. Global sensitivity analysis indicates that the frequency of the applied voltage is important for the actuator performance in one region whereas the time ratio of the applied waveform is in the other, while the dielectric constant is always important. The performance dependency on variables also differs significantly according to the different regions.

A Scaling Parameter for the Thrust Generation of Flapping Flexible Wings.

“…After the optimally choosing the training points, surrogate model are constructed minimizing the errors at off design points. This approach has shown to be valuable for wide range of applications involved with plasma actuators 35 , Lithium-Ion battery limitations 36 , and rigid wing flapping aerodynamics 37 .…”

Numerical Study of Plasma-Assisted Aerodynamic Control for Hypersonic Vehicles

“…The lack of generality and accuracy amongst the semi-analytic models, along with the high computational cost of a direct Boltzmann solution, motivates the development of an alternative conductivity model. Surrogate modeling, an approach used in many scientific fields [117,118,119,120] between the model and the actual data provided. However, it is not usually em-ployed because of its complexity and high computational expense [122].…”

Investigation of a nonstationary flow field generated by a dielectric barrier discharge

“…The most intriguing effect, namely, the acceleration of the flow by initiat ing the discharge, has not yet found an unambiguous explanation. A variety of works attempting to simulate the DBD assisted acceleration of the flow (see, for example, [11][12][13]) have been published so far, but the results of these works differ considerably. Each team of researchers uses its own approaches to the selection of a working gas, simulation of surface and volume dis charges, etc.…”