Application Cases

Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Actuators (DBDPA) have garnered significant attention in the field of flow control due to their simple structure, lack of moving parts, light weight, ability to be mounted on surfaces, fast response, absence of parasitic drag, and ease of numerical simulation. These actuators are widely studied for applications such as suppressing flow separation, enhancing lift and reducing drag, improving stall characteristics, delaying transition, and noise reduction. To enhance the performance of DBDPA, extensive research has been conducted globally on electrode edge shapes, voltage waveforms, insulating materials, discharge characteristics, and structural optimization of the actuators. Most of these studies focus on atmospheric pressure environments. However, to adapt to the low-pressure environments encountered by aircraft at high altitudes, it is necessary to investigate the working characteristics of DBDPA under low-pressure conditions. Research in this area is relatively limited, with foreign studies primarily based on thrust measurements using a balance.

ATA-67100 High-Voltage Amplifier from Aigtek can provide an AC voltage of up to 20kVpp and can generate various waveforms, including DC, AC sine, pulse, square, triangle, sawtooth, and random waveforms. It can apply a strong electric field across the electrodes of a plasma actuator, creating an experimental environment. Moreover, this high-voltage amplifier can output DC high voltage, making it suitable for a wide range of plasma experimental applications.

Experiment Name: Study on Discharge Characteristics of Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Actuators

Experiment Principle: The principle involves using pulsed arcs to rapidly heat and pressurize the air inside a semi-closed cavity, ultimately inducing the ejection of a high-speed jet. The working process of a plasma synthetic jet actuator within one cycle includes three stages: energy deposition during discharge, jetting, and suction recovery. Compared to dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators, pulsed arc plasma actuators, and traditional piezoelectric/piston synthetic jet actuators, the plasma synthetic jet actuator is the only novel actuator that combines simplicity in structure (several electrodes + one cavity), high jet velocity, and a wide operating frequency band.

Testing Equipment: ATA-7030 high-voltage amplifier, signal generator, host computer, camera, etc.

Figure: Block Diagram of the Experimental System

Experiment Process:

A function generator produces a signal that is input into the high-voltage amplifier. The high-voltage amplifier amplifies the input signal, and the amplified voltage is output to the two electrodes of the plasma actuator to generate a strong electric field. The encoder knob of the high-voltage amplifier can be adjusted to control the voltage between the two plates of the DBDPA, thereby changing the electric field strength. The experiment also involves changing the gas pressure in the vacuum chamber to study the effects of gas pressure on the discharge mode, electron density, electron temperature, and induced airflow velocity of the dielectric barrier discharge. The Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) system used is a two-dimensional PIV system from Danish company Dantec, consisting mainly of a laser, a CCD camera, a synchronization controller, and the professional image processing software DynamicStudio.

Experimental Results:

In DBDPA discharges, both external gas pressure and applied electric field strength affect electron avalanches. The bright discharge in DBDPA begins with the onset of electron avalanches, which produces distinct pulses in the current waveform. In the experiment, the driving voltage of the actuator was gradually increased under different gas pressures, and the driving voltage at which the discharge current waveform first showed pulses was considered the starting discharge voltage of the DBDPA. The discharge power of the actuator is proportional to the driving voltage, and the time-averaged thrust generated by the actuator's discharge is proportional to both the driving voltage and frequency. As the gas pressure decreases, the time-averaged thrust first increases and then decreases, with a peak occurring at a certain gas pressure. Higher driving voltages result in higher peak gas pressures. The time-averaged velocity of the induced airflow generated by the actuator's discharge is proportional to the driving voltage and frequency but inversely proportional to the gas pressure.

Role of the Power Amplifier: The primary function of the power amplifier is to amplify the small signal from the signal generator to provide a 20kVpp voltage for generating a strong electric field between the electrodes of the dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator.

High-Voltage Amplifier Recommendation: ATA-7000 Series

Figure: Specification Parameters of the ATA-7000 Series High-Voltage Amplifiers

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