Electric Circuit Model for Aerodynamic Plasma Actuator

Abstract

The aerodynamic plasma actuator has shown considerable promise as a o w control device in dieren t applications. It has been shown previously that the lumped-element circuit model correctly describes the behavior of the aerodynamic plasma actuator. To incorporate this model into the Navier-Stokes solver, it was modied to include the spatial distribution of the discharge within the plasma. To model the behavior of the single dielectric barrier discharge aerodynamic plasma actuator, we represent it as a network of electric circuit elements. The electric circuit consists of N elementary subcircuits, each representing a small physical domain with nite width and length. Each subcircuit consists of the air capacitor, dielectric capacitor, plasma resistive element, and diodes which govern the presence of the plasma. The results of the simulation are compared to the experimental data of the plasma spatial distribution obtained with a photomultiplier tube.