Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuators have the potential to be a relatively simple and robust method of flow control in complex geometries. An experimental and numerical study was conducted to determine the effects of these actuators on turbulent boundary layer separation control in an aggressive inter-turbine duct. The DBD plasma actuators were mounted on the casing of this annular gas path, to suppress the flow separation. Experimental measurements at low actuator strengths showed that the separated flow was slightly reduced. A plasma actuator model was incorporated into a commercial computational fluid dynamics solver and validated against these experimental results. The simulations expanded test cases, beyond the experiments, to estimate the optimized actuator location and strength at which the aerodynamic losses were a minimum. The optimal actuator location was found to be generally near the boundary layer separation point. Increased actuation strength reduced the separation length, but full suppression required about four times the experimentally achievable power. Even when the separation was fully suppressed, higher strength actuation was still effective in reducing the total pressure loss. It was concluded that DBD plasma actuators in attached flows could still reduce the boundary layer thickness and lower aerodynamic losses.
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