Simulation of Plasma Actuator on Arbitrarily Shaped Surface

Ben Mertz

Center for Flow Physics and Control

University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN

Graduate Student Conference, August 27th, 2007

Outline

Background/Motivation Virtual Wing Shaping Plasma Actuators Lumped Circuit Model Generalized Coordinates

Flat Plate Test Case Future Work/Conclusions

Graduate Student Conference, August 27th, 2007

Benefits of LE+TE Control

-$410K on $30M airplane

- 2.6% part-card count

- 3.3% empty weight

- 1.3 % manufacturing cost

- 3.3% drag reduction

“Virtual Wing”

Motivation: Virtual Wing Shaping

Graduate Student Conference, August 27th, 2007

Airfoils Being Studied

Graduate Student Conference, August 27th, 2007

NLF213 (Voikov)

Optimized Airfoil (Shiokawa, et al.)

MO6-13-128 (Selig, et al.)

Actuator locationActuator location

Possible actuator location

Plasma Actuators

The plasma actuator in action appears as a diffuse plasma formed on the surface of the dielectric

exposed electrode insulation

AC voltage source

insulated electrode

substrate

The plasma actuator is an asymmetric arrangement of electrodes, one of which is insulated, on an aerodynamic surface.

Graduate Student Conference, August 27th, 2007

Lumped Circuit Model

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Orlov (2006)

Models plasma on a.c. time scale Values of Capacitors and Resistors depend on physical

constants and geometry of actuator

Computational Domain

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Orlov (2006)

Generalized Coordinates

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y

x

η

ζ

Plasma Extent

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Plasma Current

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Future Research

Graduate Student Conference, August 27th, 2007

Finish flat plate test case comparison Use code to simulate actuator on curved surface Perform flow simulations using body force results

for flat plate and curved surface cases Apply code to different airfoil shapes and evaluate

feasibility for flow control purposes using CFD simulations of airfoil shapes

Questions?

Graduate Student Conference, August 27th, 2007

Acknowledgements

A special thanks to …

Dr. Thomas Corke (advisor) and Dr. Dmitri Orlov

Orbital Research Inc.

Graduate Student Conference, August 27th, 2007