Parametric study of a DBD plasma actuation based on the Suzen-Huang model
Résumé
Since the introduction of Suzen-Huang (SH) model in 2005, a huge number of publications discussing various aspects of this model has been reported. Most of these studies, till date are mainly focused on flow analyses in the framework of a Single Dielectric Barrier Discharge (SDBD) plasma actuator. This paper extends the application of the SH model to analyze the effects of some geometrical and electrical parameters of DBD plasma actuators in flow control applications. In some earlier experimental studies, it has been reported that a thick dielectric (a few mm) enhances the plasma extension resulting in an improvement of the electro-hydrodynamic (EHD) body force and the resulting ionic wind. Various parameters influence the electro-mechanical characteristics of DBD actuators such as - the dielectric thickness, the distance between both electrodes, the magnitude, the frequency and the waveform of the applied voltage The aim of this paper is to highlight the effects of these parameters on the ionic wind and EHD body force induced by the plasma discharge. It was observed that there is an optimal thickness of the dielectric layer for each configuration of actuator; above or below that optimal thickness, there is depreciation in the performance of the actuator. Thus, this paper summarizes the significance of the geometrical parameters for DBD plasma actuators. The optimal gap between the electrodes was found to be equal to zero which is in agreement with experimental observations. It is shown that with the increase in gap beyond 1 mm, the induced ionic wind velocity was significantly reduced. It is concluded that these two geometrical parameters play a fundamental role in optimization of the DBD actuator configurations. The applied voltage frequencies in the range from 1 to 4 kHz did not show significant performance variations in our DBD actuators configurations. Increasing the voltage amplitude leads to a better gain in terms of EHD force as reported in experimental studies. It is shown that square waveform of the applied voltage gives higher induced velocities compared to sinus or triangular waveform.