Airflow influence on the discharge performance of dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators

In the present work, the effect of the airflow on the performance of dielectric barrier discharge plasma-actuators is investigated experimentally. In order to analyze the actuator’s performance, luminosity measurements have been carried out simultaneously with the recording of the relevant electrical parameters. A performance drop of about 10% is observed for the entire measured parameter range at a flow speed of M = 0.145 (U∞=50 m/s). This insight is of particular importance, since the plasma-actuator control authority is already significantly reduced at this modest speed level. The results at higher Mach numbers (0.4