Determination of the phase-resolved body force produced by a dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator

Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuators are a promissing tool for active flow control applications. In order to determine the time-resolved body force induced by a DBD plasma actuator, which was driven by a 9.5 kHz sinusoidal signal, the flow has to be captured with a high spatial and temporal resolution. For this purpose we applied a laser Doppler velocity profile sensor for the measurements of the two-component velocity field and Lagrangian acceleration. A temporal and spatial resolution of 7.3 µs and 40 µm was achieved. We present the time-resolved local flow behaviours induced by the DBD actuator. Based on these measurement data the time-resolved body force generated by the plasma actuator was derived. Experiments revealed a defined dependence of the force direction on the phase angle of the ac operating voltage. This result is a contribution to the controversy on the temporal behaviour of the body force of plasma actuators.