Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma is one of most promising flow control method for its several advantages. The present work investigates the control authority of nanosecond pulse DBD plasma actuators on a flying wing model's aerodynamic characteristics. The aerodynamic forces and moments are studied by means of experiment and numerical simulation. The numerical simulation results are in good agreement with experiment results. Both results indicate that the NS-DBD plasma actuators have negligible effect on aerodynamic forces and moment at the angles of attack smaller than 16°. However, significant changes can be achieved with actuation when the model's angle of attack is larger than 16°where the flow separation occurs. The spatial flow field structure results from numerical simulation suggest that the volumetric heat produced by NS-DBD plasma actuator changes the local temperature and density and induces several vortex structures, which strengthen the mixing of the shear layer with the main flow and delay separation or even reattach the separated flow.

The flap lift device is an important part of the conventional configuration of aircrafts and has an important impact on the aerodynamic performance. In this paper, a high-efficiency, simple, and energy-saving nanosecond dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuator is placed in the vicinity of the flap lift device to improve the aerodynamic performance of the flap by controlling the flow field. The two-dimensional airfoil GAW-1 and its 29% flap were selected as the research objects, and the nanosecond (NS) DBD actuators were fixed at different locations near the deflection angle of the 10°flap. The excitation frequency, pulse width, and energy density parameters of the pulse discharge were adjusted, and then, the effects of parameter changes on aerodynamic characteristics of the airfoil were studied by numerical simulation. The simulation results show that adjusting the excitation frequency on the aerodynamic drag is weak and that the effect on the aerodynamic lift is obvious. The increase of the discharge pulse width will have a more significant effect on the flow field, i.e., a proper increase of the discharge pulse width can achieve better drag reduction, and increase lift after a stall at a high angle of attack. Although the increase of discharge energy density can strengthen the pulse perturbation effect on the flow field, it also contributes to some adverse effects and has no obvious optimization effect on the control efficiency of lift increase and drag reduction.