Numerical Investigation of Serpentine Plasma Actuators for Separation Control at Low Reynolds Number

摘要

Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuators with serpentine shaped electrodes cause a change in the operational behavior of the flow control mechanism relative to the standard linear actuator due to the introduction of fully three dimensional vortices. A parametric study is performed on a partially separated transitional flow over an SD7003 airfoil. This study examines the change in behavior as a function of geometric parameters, in particular the geometric amplitude of the serpentine geometry as it is flattened out, reverting back to the standard linear actuator. Continuous operation of the actuator does not fully remove the separation, but it does modify the properties of the separated boundary layer. Separation is eliminated when the actuator is operated with a duty cycle.