Experimental Investigation of the Plasma Aerodynamic Actuation Generated by Nanosecond-pulse Sliding Discharge

Plasma flow control, based on plasma aerodynamic actuation, has become a newly-rising research focus in international aerodynamic field. Sliding discharge is a novel approach to generate plasma aerodynamic actuation. In this paper, a three-electrode plasma sheet actuator driven by repetitive nanosecond pulses with negative DC component is used to generate sliding discharge, which can be called nanosecond-pulse sliding discharge. The phenomenology and the flow characteristics of plasma sheet actuator have been investigated experimentally. Discharge morphology shows that the formation of nanosecond-pulse sliding discharge is dependent on the peak value of repetitive nanosecond pulses (VP) and the voltage of negative DC component (VDC) applied on the plasma sheet actuator. Particle Image Velocimetry test results demonstrate that negative DC component applied to a third electrode could significantly modify the topology of the flow induced by Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD). Both the velocity and the vorticity induced by sliding discharge increase significantly when compared with DBD. Therefore, nanosecond-pulse sliding discharge is a preferable plasma aerodynamic actuation generation mode, which is very promising in aerodynamic field.