Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Actuators for Aerodynamic Control

Flow control is critical to the effective operation of space vehicles where high velocities must be achieved with minimum power consumption. Recent studies at Princeton have demonstrated the utility of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuators for aerodynamic control. Nanosecond pulse sustained DC driven DBDs are predicted to have much higher flow velocities than conventional control systems. Our initial work in the area discovered that these devices produce charge build-up on pulse sustained DC driven DBDs which has hindered the realization of this prediction. If the charge build-up can be minimized, the DC driven DBDs have the potential for higher flow control efficiency than previously attainable with either AC or DC driven DBDs in laboratory experiments. The proposed research will develop integrated surface structures that simultaneously optimize the DBD performance to take advantage of the pulse or RF sustained DC bias approach while suppressing the surface charge build up. This success of this project will be critical for the development of a practical DBD actuator that can be implemented as a control device.