Electrical and mechanical characteristics of surface AC dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators applied to airflow control

The present paper is a wide review on AC surface dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) actuators applied to airflow control. Both electrical and mechanical characteristics of surface DBD are presented and discussed. The first half of the present paper gives the last results concerning typical single plate-to-plate surface DBDs supplied by a sine high voltage. The discharge current, the plasma extension and its morphology are firstly analyzed. Then, time-averaged and time-resolved measurements of the produced electrohydrodynamic force and of the resulting electric wind are commented. The second half of the paper concerns a partial list of approaches having demonstrated a significant modification in the discharge…