Experimental Investigation on Aerodynamic Control of a Wing with Distributed Plasma Actuators

Abstract

Experimental investigation of active flow control on the aerodynamic performance of a flying wing is conducted. Subsonic wind tunnel tests are performed using a model of a 35 o swept flying wing with an nanosecond dielectric barrier discharge (NS-DBD) plasma actuator, which is installed symmetrically on the wing leading edge. The lift and drag coefficient, lift-todrag ratio and pitching moment coefficient are tested by a six-component force balance for a range of angles of attack. The results indicate that a 44.5% increase in the lift coefficient, a 34.2% decrease in the drag coefficient and a 22.4% increase in the maximum lift-to-drag ratio can be achieved as compared with the baseline case. The effects of several actuation parameters are also investigated, and the results show that control efficiency demonstrates a strong dependence on actuation location and frequency. Furthermore, we highlight the use of distributed plasma actuators at the leading edge to enhance the aerodynamic performance, giving insight into the different mechanism of separation control and vortex control, which shows tremendous potential in practical flow control for a broad range of angles of attack.

UAV flight test of plasma slats and ailerons with microsecond dielectric barrier discharge

“…The dielectric barrier is made of 3 layers of Kapton tapes which in total are 0.2 mm in depth. The total length of the actuators is 2 m. According to previous researches, [22,24] with the actuators located at various chordwise positions of the wing, it has a better flow control effect when the actuator is located at the leading edge than when the actuators located at the middle of the wing or on the trailing edge. To make it easier to locate the actuator and simplify the processing techniques in future application, the junction between the two electrodes of the actuator is located right on the leading edge.…”

“…Previous studies show that the best flow control effect can be achieved when the reduced frequency F + = ( f × c)/V ∞ ≈ 1. [22][23][24] The f , c, and V ∞ represent the pulse frequency, mean aerodynamic chord length, and freestream velocity respectively. So, the pulse frequency is set to be 100 Hz to ensure F + ≈ 1.…”

“…[5][6][7][8] Since Roth first employed One Atmosphere Uniform Glow Discharge Surface Plasma as boundary layer separation control devices, [9] a large number of researches dealing with dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) actuators have been conducted. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] The DBD actuators driven by alternating-current high-voltage (AC-DBD) are studied most. [12][13][14][15][16][17] The stall angle of an NACA 0015 wing model can be improved by 7 • at a freestream velocity of 30 m/s with AC-DBD.…”

“…[17] The DBD actuators driven by nanosecond pulses can concentrate their power in several to tens of nanoseconds and create the rapid localized heating of the gas layer near the surface, [20] which has a good flow control performance with Mach number up to 0.74. [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Although the flow control effect [16] and the global flow response [25] of AC-DBD and NS-DBD are similar, and the question remains over which of them is better, there is a great potential for the NS-DBD in separation control. However, the NS-DBD may generate severe electromagnetic interference (EMI) and disable other devices (like computers, servo motors, and flight control systems) without being properly protected.…”

Analysis of flow separation control using nanosecond-pulse discharge plasma actuators on a flying wing

“…In the process of NS-DBD plasma actuators actuation, a series of blast wave and volumetric heat sources are generated. The blast waves have few effects on the separation flow field and the volumetric heat sources have the main effect [22]. Figure 15 shows the flying wing surface vorticities isolines at 5 μs, 200 μs, 0.005 s and the end of the actuation period in an actuation cycle.…”