Non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasmas for aeronautic applications

Dielectric barrier surface discharges (DBD) have the potential to act as flush mounted flow control devices for separation control and other aeronautic applications. A pulse-sustained plasma with the ions driven by a DC bias voltage is proposed for optimum performance. While characterizing these devices, it was found that their performance is severely limited by surface charge build-up. That charge builds up rapidly and remains for as long as hours. Work in this paper shows that the surface charge can be mitigated by using a reversing DC bias potential or by using a constant DC bias potential with a partially covered electrode.