A study on the plasma actuator electrode geometry configurations for improvement of the aerodynamic performance of an airfoil

Abstract

In this study, the induced flow effects of plasma generated by various types of electrode geometry configurations are presented. The model chosen for the study is a NACA0015 airfoil. The experiments are conducted in a wind tunnel at Reynolds number of 4.8×104. The plasma actuators mounted on the leading edge of the airfoil at chord position of 0.1 (x/C). The plasma actuators consist of an embedded and exposed electrode between which a dielectric material is placed. The applied voltage is set to 7 kV pp . The excitation frequency is also set to 3.5 kHz. Three different electrode geometry configurations, namely as linear, saw-tooth and square, are considered for the study. As a part of the experimental study, the two dimensional and three dimensional flow structures generated by the plasma actuators and related analysis results are presented. In addition, necessary measurements are also made to determine the drag and lift forces.