Recent Developments on Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) Plasma Actuators for Icing Mitigation

Abstract

Ice accretion is a common issue on aircraft flying in cold climate conditions. The ice accumulation on aircraft surfaces disturbs the adjacent airflow field, increases the drag, and significantly reduces the aircraft’s aerodynamic performance. It also increases the weight of the aircraft and causes the failure of critical components in some situations, leading to premature aerodynamic stall and loss of control and lift. With this in mind, several authors have begun to study the thermal effects of plasma actuators for icing control and mitigation, considering both aeronautical and wind energy applications. Although this is a recent topic, several studies have already been performed, and it is clear this topic has attracted the attention of several research groups. Considering the importance and potential of using dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuators for ice mitigation, we aim to present in this paper the first review on this topic, summarizing all the information reported in the literature about three major subtopics: thermal effects induced by DBD plasma actuators, plasma actuators’ ability in deicing and ice formation prevention, and ice detection capability of DBD plasma actuators. An overview of the characteristics of these devices is performed and conclusions are drawn regarding recent developments in the application of plasma actuators for icing mitigation purposes.

Plasma Actuators Based on Alumina Ceramics for Active Flow Control Applications

“…Nevertheless, these results are consistent with the values reported in the literature [28]. The observed phenomenon happens because, in fact, most of the power applied to the actuator is dissipated as dielectric and gas heating while the other part is lost as reactive power and power expended to maintain the discharge plasma [20].…”

“…In addition, researchers revealed that plasma actuators produce considerable thermal effects during their operation, which can be used for icing mitigation [16][17][18][19]. Bearing this in mind, several researchers focused their studies on the operation of DBD plasma actuators for simultaneous active flow control and icing accumulation prevention [20,21].…”

Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Processing and Sr-Doped ZnO/CNT Photocatalyst Decoration of Cotton Fabrics for Self-Cleaning Application

“…The fixed electrode was covered with a dielectric tube, while the rotatable electrode was covered with a fabric sample . A 30 kV alternating current supply with a variac and 60 Hz cycle provided the current in mA for plasma generation . The plasma operating conditions include a 40 mA discharge current at 20 kV discharge voltage, an interelectrode gap of 3 mm, and a plasma activation time of 5 min.…”

Time-resolved investigations of a glow mode impulse dielectric barrier discharge in pure ammonia gas by means of E-FISH diagnostic

“…Over the last decades, non-thermal plasma developed with dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) cells has been extensively studied, for various fields such as biomedical applications [1][2][3], chemical fuel reforming processes [4,5], plasma actuators for high-speed flow control [6] or icing mitigation [7] and surface modifications [8][9][10][11]. These discharges expose three different operating modes [8,[12][13][14][15]: filamentary, diffuse (or also qualified as homogeneous) and patterned (or also named as self-organized).…”