Investigation of Airfoil Flow Separation Control by Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Actuators

The performance of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuators on controlling the flow separation of NACA0015 airfoil was investigated in a low-turbulence and low-speed wind tunnel. The smoke flow visualization was applied to reflect the modification of the flow over the airfoil controlled by the plasma actuators. Lift and drag were measured by the pressure distribution on airfoil surface with electronic pressure scanners to investigate the separation control effect of the pulse frequency and actuator position. The results show that the plasma actuators can effectively suppress the flow separation and make the flow reattach to the surface. The plasma actuation increases the angle of the attack of the flow reattachment by 5° at the free-stream velocity of 15m/s. With the same input power of the plasma actuators, the flow control effect will be better when the actuator pulse frequency increases.