Improving Plasma Actuator Thrust At Low Pressure Through Geometric Variation
Abstract
The force production and power consumption of plasma actuators with varying electrode geometries was measured. The geometries were varied by changing the length of the exposed and buried electrodes as well as varying the chord-wise gap between the electrodes. Each actuator was driven with a 5 kHz sine wave at 16 kVpp, and operated at pressures ranging from 10-101 kPa, which corresponds to altitudes from 16,000 m to sea level. The electric eld of each con guration was also modeled using Maxwell Ansoft. Increasing the length of the buried electrode was found to have the greatest e ect on thrust production especially at low pressure. Actuators with 75 mm buried electrodes produced an average of 26% more thrust at all pressures and 34% more thrust at 20-40 kPa than the traditional 15 mm buried electrode. The gap study revealed that actuators with a 1 mm gap produced the most force at all pressures. All actuator designs were found to have a similar linear relationship between their e ectivenesses and operating pressure.
Recommended Citation
P. D. Friz and J. L. Rovey, "Improving Plasma Actuator Thrust At Low Pressure Through Geometric Variation," AIAA SciTech, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Jan 2014.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2014-0146
Meeting Name
52nd Aerospace Sciences Meeting
Department(s)
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2014 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Jan 2014
