Plasma Actuator Performance Driven by Dual-Power Supply Voltage—AC High Voltage Superimposed With Pulse Bias Voltage

Many studies have demonstrated the utility of surface dielectric barrier discharge (SDBD) plasma actuators driven by different voltage waveforms for airflow control. In this paper, a new dual-power supply voltage consisting of ac high voltage with a superimposed positive or negative pulse bias voltage is applied to a two-electrode structure SDBD actuator to compare the actuator performance with that driven by a single ac voltage waveform. The ionic wind velocity, the thrust force, and the schlieren visualization images are studied under three types of voltage waveforms: single ac voltage, ac voltage superimposed with a positive pulse bias voltage (ACPP), and ac voltage superimposed with a negative pulse bias voltage (ACNP). The influences of different pulse parameters including pulse voltage, pulse repetition frequency (PRF), and pulsewidth on the actuator performance are studied in detail. Experimental results show that pulse voltage and PRF have more notable influence on the actuator performance when the actuator is driven by ACPP, while the pulsewidth has little effect on the actuator performance. In contrast, the actuator performance is little changed when the actuator is driven by ACNP. The positive and negative pulse discharges have different effects on the actuator performance, the reason is positive pulse discharge increases the discharge of glow-like region while negative pulse discharge increases the discharge of streamer region in the following ac cycle. The schlieren images further indicate pulse discharge exerts its effects on the SDBD actuator performance by affecting the electric field of ac discharge.