Experimental Investigation of Geometric and Electrical Characteristics by measurements of the induced flow velocity

This paper deals with experimental measurements of the instantaneous ionic wind velocity induced by Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuator in quiescent air at atmospheric pressure. A parametric study has been performed in order to increase the velocity of the ionic wind induced by the DBD actuators. The electrical and mechanical characteristics of the plasma actuator have been studied under different conditions. The main objective of this work was to help to optimize the geometrical and electrical parameters to obtain more effective ionic wind for flow control. The time averaged velocity profiles of the ionic wind show that the position of the maximum velocity come near the surface by increasing the excitation frequency. Our results indicate that the DBD plasma actuators generate vortices at the same frequency of the excitation frequency of the applied high voltage. The power, of the vortices that are shed from the actuators, increases by increasing duty cycle percentage. Unlike other similar works in this field, this study has examined the behavior of unsteady plasma actuator.