Experimental study on DBD plasma actuator with combination of AC and nanosecond pulse voltage

In the last decade, a Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuator driven by combination voltage of AC and nanosecond pulse has been studied. The combined-voltage-driven plasma actuator increased the body force effect, which induces wall jet and flow suction, by overlapping nanosecond pulse voltage while DBD plasma actuator driven by nanosecond pulses is a flow control actuator generating compression waves due to pulse heating, which allows us to do active flow control in high speed flow reported up to Mach number 0.7. In this study, DBD plasma actuator driven by combination voltage of sinusoidal AC and nanosecond pulse has been experimentally studied. Time-averaged net thrust and cycle-averaged power consumption of actuator were characterized by electrical weight balance and chargevoltage cycle of DBD plasma actuator, respectively. The plasma actuator thrust driven with the combination voltage enhanced its thrust with pulse repetition rate increase. Energy consumption in the actuator was controlled by varying AC phase when the nanosecond pulse is applied. Therefore, the thrust and power consumption in the actuator was almost independently controlled by pulse repetition rate and pulse imposed phase.