Plasma control of

flow in an airfoil

Flow separation
Flow separation occurs when the boundary
layer travels far enough against an adverse
pressure gradient that the speed of the
boundary layer relative to the object falls
almost to zero . The fluid flow becomes
detached from the surface of the object, and
instead takes the forms of eddies and vortices
It leads to drastic increase in pressure drag

Present measures taken to reduce flow

separation
VORTEX GENERATOR- A vortex generator (VG)
is an aerodynamic device, consisting of a small
vane usually attached to a lifting surface
Basic principle: They generate an array of
streamwise vortices that promote increased
mixing of the high speed air in the main
stream and outer boundary layer, thereby the
boundary layer is reenergized.

Disadvantages of VGs
They cannot be used for active stall control
They also generate considerable amount of
parasitic drag during cruise.

Introduction to plasma
Plasma is defined as the fourth state of
matter.
Plasma is created when sufficient energy is
added to a gas so that it becomes ionized. The
result is a quasi-neutral particle system
containing free electrons, ions and, depending
on the degree of ionization , neutral particles.

Types of Plasma
Hot plasma -A plasma is referred to as being
"hot" if it is nearly fully ionized.
Cold plasma-A plasma is called as "cold" if
only a small fraction (for example 1%) of the
gas molecules are ionized

Plasma control of flow over an airfoil

Plasma actuator is the new alternative without the
drag penalty to control the separation it is also
called as plasma vortex generator
Plasma actuator works due to the momentum
added by the discharge-induced electric wind, or to
the laminar to turbulent transition induced by the
disturbances generated by the plasma actuator.

Types of Plasma actuator

There are two main forms of discharge used for
the separation controlalternating current (AC)DBD and nanosecond pulse (NS)-DBD discharge
When AC high voltage is applied to the
electrodes ,it ionizes the air and creates an ionic
wind of few m/s ( 1.5 m/s 8 m/s)
DBD is driven by repetitive nanosecond pulses ,it
can offer highly efficient non-thermal plasma at
atmospheric pressure and is widely used for
plasma applications

Factors affecting ionic velocity

Electrode gap (5 < d < 15 mm)

Grounded electrode width (1 < L < 50 mm)
Frequency (100 Hz < f < 2 kHz)
Voltage amplitude (8 < V < 30 kV)
Material permittivity (3 < er < 10)
Dielectric layer thickness (1 < a < 3 mm)

References
Optimization of a dielectric barrier discharge actuator by stationary and
non-stationary measurements of the induced flow velocity: application to
airflow control - M. Cazalens et al. Springer
Lift and drag performances of an axisymmetric airfoil controlled by plasma
actuator - N. Benard et al. Elsevier
Flow separation control on swept wing with nanosecond pulse driven DBD
plasma actuators - Wu Yun et al. Chinese Journal of Astronautics.

THANK YOU