Author(s)

Kwing-So Choi^1*, Timothy N. Jukes², Richard D. Whalley³, Lihao Feng⁴, Jinjun Wang⁴, Takayuki Matsunuma⁵, Takehiko Segawa⁵

¹Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
²Dyson Technology Ltd., Malmesbury, UK.
³School of Engineering, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
⁴Fluid Mechanics Key Laboratory of Education Ministry, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
⁵Energy Technology Research Institute, AIST, Tsukuba, Japan.

Dielectric-barrier-discharge (DBD) plasma actuators are all-electric devices with no moving parts. They are made of a simple construction, consisting only of a pair of electrodes sandwiching a dielectric sheet. When AC voltage is applied, air surrounding the upper electrode is ionized, which is attracted towards the charged dielectric surface to form a wall jet. Control of flow over land and air vehicles as well as rotational machinery can be carried out using this jet flow on demand. Here we review recent developments in plasma virtual actuators for flow control that can replace conventional actuators for better aerodynamic performance.

Flow Control, DBD Plasma, Actuators, Aerodynamics, Drag Reduction, Turbulence

Choi, K. , Jukes, T. , Whalley, R. , Feng, L. , Wang, J. , Matsunuma, T. and Segawa, T. (2015) Plasma Virtual Actuators for Flow Control. Journal of Flow Control, Measurement & Visualization, 3, 22-34. doi: 10.4236/jfcmv.2015.31003.