Winglet Type Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Actuators: Performance Characterization and Numerical Comparison

Winglet type dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator (PA) with two exposed electrodes have been investigated experimentally in a quiescent air and numerically modeled. Three arrangements of electrode positions are used: leading edge type (here after L PA), middle edge type (here after M PA), and trailing edge type (here after T PA) to investigate the effect of electrode position on induced flow. When the electrodes are located at the leading edge of the winglet PA, the stream wise flow is effectively enhanced on the covered electrode; on the other hand when the electrodes are located at the trailing edge, the friction loss is minimized for the near-wall high shear flow over the winglet and thus the highest momentum integral is obtained for the downstream jet-like flow. As all three type of PAs have two exposed electrodes, hence two separate jet flows are induced which are unified to a single jet after the winglet trailing edge. The electrode location also influences the unification velocity at downstream. The longer distance between trailing edge and embedded electrode reduces the downstream unified velocity. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique has been implemented to investigate the flow field. Simulation results are found to be consistent and in good agreement with experimental data.