Investigation Of Flow Control Technology Based On Plasma

This paper sets Velocity Boundary Layer Flow Control as its study field, and particularly focuses on the flow control mechanism via the one atmosphere low temperature surface discharge plasma. On the approach of acquiring a higher control efficiency at a lower power expense, experiment results play the most important role in revealing the relationship between respective discharging parameters and the low-temperature plasma's actuated volume, as well as the latter's flow-control performance.In order to optimize the plasma-actuating panel's physical structure for minimizing the power consumption, the researchers started with three experiments respectively on plasma's discharging characteristics, its emission spectrum, and the induced surface velocity profile. These experiments suggested electrodes gap, d, be set at 0 mm for the best flow control performance. In the next step, technical possibilities for minimizing power consumption were discussed from a theoretical perspective. After that, the researchers proposed, for the first time in China, applying multi-phased power source to enhance the plasma flow control efficiency and actualized it in experiment. The optimized actuating panel, driven by an eight-phased power source, was mounted on a NACA 0015 air foil, and the induced surface velocity profile was assessed. At last, an empirical formula on velocity profile was made from large quantities of experimental data and might act as a model for further numerical analysis.Based on results of the aforementioned experiments, the researchers set up a 200 mm×300 mm low-speed wind tunnel in which the plasma-actuating panel was mounted on a NACA 0015 air foil. In the subsequent wind-blowing experiments, the profile of the re-attached boundary layer flows was depicted, the drag force upon the air foil was detected, and the impact of the driving power's parameters upon the plasma's drag-reducing performance was analyzed. One-phased and eight-phased power sources were respectively applied to the actuating panel, and comparative data demonstrated that the eight-phased power excelled the other in cost of voltage and power when giving out the same actuating performance. The velocity profile expression was incorporated in numerical stimulation by Fluent, and the computed results were in accordance to the data collected in experiments.