Numerical simulation of corona discharge produced in wire-airfoil configuration in atmospheric conditions

The strong voltage difference between two electrodes with different thicknesses causes the corona discharge phenomenon. Today, corona discharge has various applications, including use in thrusters. In the last decade, the use of corona plasma actuators to control flow and generate thrust has received much attention. In the present study. COMSOL software has been used to perform the simulation. First, the simulation results are validated in the wire- cylinder configuration and then the corona discharge in the wire-airfoil configuration is simulated. In the present study, the effect of the distance between the two electrodes on the airflow characteristics due to corona discharge such as electric current, thrust, fluid flow velocity and electrical power consumption is studied numerically. The results show that if the distance between the two electrodes increases, the electric current and the electric wind speed decrease, but the efficiency and power consumption increase. The rate of change of thrust increases by 15% for each kilo volt increase in applied voltage.