Affiliations: [a] Engineering College, Air Force Engineering University,
Xi'an, China | [b] State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and
Power Equipment, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China | [c] Department of Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering,
Air Force Aviation University, Changchun, China
Abstract: Plasma flow control, based on the plasma aerodynamic actuation
generated by air discharge, is an active field in aerodynamics due to its
potential application in performance improvement of future aircraft. In order
to better understand the underlying physical mechanism of plasma flow control,
it is important to investigate the relationship between the operating
parameters and the plasma aerodynamic actuation characteristics. This paper
reports the electrical, optical and mechanical characteristics of surface
dielectric barrier discharge plasma aerodynamic actuation excited by
microsecond and nanosecond high voltage waveforms. The nanosecond discharge is
more diffuser than the microsecond discharge and the discharge current is much
larger at the same applied voltage amplitude. The optical emission intensity of
the nanosecond discharge plasma is stronger than that of the microsecond
discharge plasma, while the rotational and vibrational temperatures of
N_{2} in the nanosecond discharge plasma are less. In
addition, the relative intensity of the first negative system of N_2^+ (B^2Σ _u^+
→ X^2Σ _g^+) and the second positive system
of N_2 (C^3Π _u → B^3Π _g)
is much less in the
nanosecond discharge plasma. The velocity measurements indicate that the air
flow induced by the nanosecond discharge plasma aerodynamic actuation is
vertical to the dielectric surface, while that induced by the microsecond
discharge actuation is parallel to the dielectric surface.
