Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Geometrical and Electrical Variables on the Performance of the DBD Plasma Actuators in Uniform and Filamentary Regimes

DBD plasma actuators are one of the effective devices for active flow control, which has received substantial attention during the last decade. In this paper, to find the optimum performance of plasma actuators, the effect of geometrical variables (including the gap between electrodes, dielectric thickness, and covered electrode width) and electrical variables (including voltage and frequency) on induced flow velocity and power consumption, is experimentally investigated. This is the first investigation in which design of experiment (DOE) approach is used to find the interaction among variables. The results show that each of the mentioned variables has a different effect on the start of uniform plasma discharge, induced flow velocity, power consumption, and the start of the filamentary plasma discharge regime. Furthermore, the results show that unlike the uniform discharge regime, in filamentary discharge regime increasing power consumption results in decreased induced flow velocity. The results of this investigation can be used to select the optimum actuator in which the ratio of induced flow velocity to power consumption is maximum, and to prevent from entering the filamentary discharge regime.