Wake Control over a Long Flat Plate with DBD Plasma Actuator and Power Consumption

Abstract

Wake flow control was experimentally conducted with a pair of a dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator (DBD-PA), attached to both sides of a long flat plate near its trailing edge. The strength of the double-jet was controlled by varying plasma excitation voltage and frequency applied to the PA. The discharge voltage shows nonlinearity for the setting voltage to the PA. The value of the input voltage with maximum output peak corresponds to that with the fastest double-jet flow with strong radiated light of ionized air. Power consumption of the PA was proportional to the second power of the applied voltage. It is shown by experiments with Pitot tube and hot-wire probe that the actuator can strongly modify the mean velocity distribution of the wake flow, depending on the direction of the double-jet. The PA recovers velocity defect in the wake flow and narrows the wake width with double-jet towards upstream or downstream.