Towards Development of a Plasma Actuator without External Power Supply for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Abstract

Towards industrial use of dielectric-barrier-discharge (DBD) plasma actuators, a practical DBD plasma actuator system including a driving circuit assumed to equip unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is proposed in this study. It is preferable to use a high-power battery already equipped with a UAV as a power supply of the DBD plasma actuator. We develop the driving circuit, which consists of a DC-power supply (around 500 V), simple booster circuits, and a Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier. The DBD plasma actuator is configured with assuming to divide an ionization role and a charged-particle acceleration role. At the ionization part, approximately 2 kV pulses are repetitively generated with a frequency of 100 kHz, successfully forming stable surface DBD. At the acceleration part, a high-DC voltage of approximately 10 kV is applied. The electrical characteristics of the developed DBD plasma actuator shows a similar trend to that of a nanosecond-pulse-driven DBD plasma actuator. Also, the peak velocity of the induced ionic wind exceeds 2 m/s, indicating that the performance of the developed DBD plasma actuator is comparable to the conventional DBD plasma actuators. The developed driving circuit considerably saves the additional weight and cost compared to the conventional high-power and high-voltage power supply, advancing a step toward the industrial use of the DBD plasma actuators for drastic improvement of the aerodynamic characteristics of unmanned aerial vehicles.