Experimental demonstration of low-voltage operated dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators using SiC MOSFETs

Successful operation of a multi-stage dielectric-barrier-discharge (DBD) plasma actuator is demonstrated by operating it on voltage one order of magnitude lower than that of a conventional single-stage DBD plasma actuator. An applied voltage waveform of direct current (DC) voltage combined with high-frequency repetitive pulses is generated by a simple power system consisting of a DC power supply and silicon carbide metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors. The time-averaged flow field obtained by particle image velocimetry indicates that a successively accelerated ionic wind is obtained by the eight-stage DBD plasma actuator. The velocity of the induced ionic wind increases with increasing DC voltage and repetitive pulse frequency. The maximum velocity of approximately 4.5 m s-1 is achieved when the DC voltage of 1500∼ V is applied with the switching frequency of 150∼ kHz, suggesting that the proposed multi-stage DBD plasma actuator induces the same level of ionic wind as a conventional high-voltage-operated single-stage DBD plasma actuator, even with a low voltage.