Experimental Study of the Unsteady Actuation Effect on Induced Flow Characteristics in DBD Plasma Actuators

The main aim of this paper is to investigate unsteady actuation effects on the operation of dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) plasma actuators and to study induced flow characteristics of steady and unsteady actuators in quiescent air.The parameters affecting the operation of unsteady plasma actuators were experimentally measured and compared with the ones for steady actuators.The effects of excitation frequency and duty cycle on the induced flow pattern properties were studied by means of hot-wire anemometers,and the smoke visualization method was also used.It was observed that the current and the mean induced velocity linearly increase with increasing duty cycle while they are not sensitive to excitation frequency.Furthermore,with increasing excitation frequency,the magnitude of vortices shedding from the actuator decreases while their frequency increases.Nevertheless,when the excitation frequency grows beyond a certain level,the induced flow downstream of the actuator behaves as a steady flow.However,the results for steady actuators show that by increasing the applied voltage and carrier frequency,the velocity of the induced flow first increases and then decreases with actuator saturation and the onset of the emission of streaky glow discharge.     

Turbulent drag reduction by spanwise slot blowing pulsed plasma actuation

This work studies the turbulent drag reduction (TDR) effect of a flat plate model using a spanwise slot blowing pulsed plasma actuator (SBP-PA). Wind tunnel experiments are carried out under a Reynolds number of 1.445 × 104. Using a hot-wire anemometer and an electrical data acquisition system, the influences of millisecond pulsed plasma actuation with different burst frequencies and duty cycles on the microscale coherent structures near the wall of the turbulent boundary layer (TBL) are studied. The experimental results show that the SBP-PA can effectively reduce the frictional drag of the TBL. When the duty cycle exceeds 30%, the TDR rate is greater than 11%, and the optimal drag reduction rate of 13.69% is obtained at a duty cycle of 50%. Furthermore, optimizing the electrical parameters reveals that increasing the burst frequency significantly reduces the velocity distribution in the logarithmic region of the TBL. When the normalized burst frequency reaches f+ = 2πfpd/U∞ = 7.196, the optimal TDR effectiveness is 16.97%, indicating a resonance phenomenon between the pulsed plasma actuation and the microscale coherent structures near the wall. Therefore, reasonably selecting the electrical parameters of the plasma actuator is expected to significantly improve the TDR effect.     

Effects of Plasma Aerodynamic Actuation on Corner Separation in a Highly Loaded Compressor Cascade

This paper reports experimental results on the effects of plasma aerodynamic actua- tion （PAA） on corner separation control in a highly loaded, low speed, linear compressor cascade. Total pressure loss coefficient distribution was adopted to evaluate the corner separation control effect in wind tunnel experiments. Results of pressure measurements and particle image velocime- try （PIV） show that the control effect of pitch-wise PAA on the endwall is much better than that of stream-wise PAA on the suction surface. When both the pitch-wise PAA on the endwall and stream-wise PAA on the suction surface are turned on simultaneously, the control effect is the best among all three PAA types. The mechanisms of nanosecond discharge and microsecond discharge PAA are different in corner separation control. The control effect of microsecond discharge PAA turns out better with the increase of discharge voltage and duty cycle. Compared with microsec- ond discharge PAA, nanosecond discharge PAA is more effective in preventing corner separation when the freestream velocity increases. Frequency is one of the most important parameters in plasma flow control. The optimum excitation frequency of microsecond discharge PAA is 500 Hz, which is different from the frequency corresponding to the case with a Strouhal number of unity.     

Research on the Peristaltic Flow Acceleration Performance of Asynchronous and Duty Cycle Pulsed DBD Plasma Actuation

Using a plexiglas plate model, the performance of peristaltic flow acceleration in- duced by multiple DBD （dielectric barrier discharge） plasma actuators was studied based on PIV （particle image velocimetry）. The asynchronous and the duty cycle pulsed actuation modes were proposed and tested. The velocity fields induced by multiple DBD plasma actuators with different phase angles and duty cycle ratios were acquired and the momentum transfer characteristics of the flow field were discussed. Consequently, the mechanism of the peristalsis-acceleration multi- ple DBD plasma actuation was analyzed. The results show that the peristaltic flow acceleration effect of multiple plasma actuators occurs mainly in paraelectric direction, and the mechanism of peristaltic flow acceleration is ejection pushing effect rather than injection pumping effect. The asynchronous and the duty cycle pulsed actuation modes can, with energy consumption increase of merely 10%, achieve 65% and 42% increase of downstream velocity, and thus are promising in velocity improvement and energy saving.     

Optimum Duty Cycle of Unsteady Plasma Aerodynamic Actuation for NACA0015 Airfoil Stall Separation Control

Unsteady dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) plasma aerodynamic actuation technology is employed to suppress airfoil stall separation and the technical parameters are explored with wind tunnel experiments on an NACA0015 airfoil by measuring the surface pressure distribution of the airfoil.The performance of the DBD aerodynamic actuation for airfoil stall separation suppression is evaluated under DBD voltages from 2000 V to 4000 V and the duty cycles varied in the range of 0.1 to 1.0.It is found that higher lift coefficients and lower threshold voltages are achieved under the unsteady DBD aerodynamic actuation with the duty cycles less than 0.5as compared to that of the steady plasma actuation at the same free-stream speeds and attack angles,indicating a better flow control performance.By comparing the lift coefficients and the threshold voltages,an optimum duty cycle is determined as 0.25 by which the maximum lift coefficient and the minimum threshold voltage are obtained at the same free-stream speed and attack angle.The non-uniform DBD discharge with stronger discharge in the positive half cycle due to electrons deposition on the dielectric slabs and the suppression of opposite momentum transfer due to the intermittent discharge with cutoff of the negative half cycle are responsible for the observed optimum duty cycle.     

Effects of Gas Flow Rate on the Discharge Characteristics of a DC Excited Plasma Jet

A direct current(DC) source excited plasma jet consisting of a hollow needle anode and a plate cathode has been developed to form a diffuse discharge plume in ambient air with flowing argon as the working gas.Using optical and electrical methods,the discharge characteristics are investigated for the diffuse plasma plume.Results indicate that the discharge has a pulse characteristic,under the excitation of a DC voltage.The discharge pulse corresponds to the propagation process of a plasma bullet travelling from the anode to the cathode.It is found that,with an increment of the gas flow rate,both the discharge plume length and the current peak value of the pulsed discharge decrease in the laminar flow mode,reach their minima at about1.5 L/min,and then slightly increase in the turbulent mode.However,the frequency of the pulsed discharge increases in the laminar mode with increasing the argon flow rate until the argon flow rate equals to about 1.5 L/min,and then slightly decreases in the turbulent mode.     

Numerical Simulation of Stall Flow Control Using a DBD Plasma Actuator in Pulse Mode

A numerical simulation method is employed to investigate the effects of the unsteady plasma body force over the stalled NACA 0015 airfoil at low Reynolds number flow conditions.The plasma body force created by a dielectric barrier discharge actuator is modeled with a phenomenological method for plasma simulation coupled with the compressible Navier-Stokes equations.The governing equations are solved using an efficient implicit finitevolume method.The responses of the separated flow field to the effects of an unsteady body force in various interpulses and duty cycles as well as different locations and magnitudes are studied.It is shown that the duty cycle and inter-pulse are key parameters for flow separation control.Additionally,it is concluded that the body force is able to attach the flow and can affect boundary layer grow that Mach number 0.1 and Reynolds number of 45000.     

Optimized analysis of ionospheric amplitude modulated heating parameters for excitation of very/extremely low frequency radiations

It is now well known that amplitude modulated (AM) high frequency (HF) radio wave transmissions into the ionosphere can be used to generate very/extremely low frequency (VLF/ ELF) radio waves using the so-called ‘electrojet antenna’. Duty cycle and heating frequency are analyzed and discussed with the lower-ionosphere modulated heating model, so as to improve the radiation efficiency of VLF/ELF waves in AM ionospheric heating experiments. Based on numerical simulation, the ranges of parametric selectivity in optimal duty cycle and heating frequency ( fHF) are derived. The International Reference Ionosphere 2015 (IRI-2015) model and two-parameter model are used to predict background electron density profiles, and optimized ranges of duty cycle for different density profiles are analyzed and compared. The influences of wave polarizations on optimal duty cycle are also discussed. It is shown that intensity of the VLF/ELF equivalent radiation source (M) firstly rises and then falls with the increase of duty cycle. When using the IRI model, M peaks at a duty cycle of 50%, optimally ranging from 40% −70%. For the two-parameter model case, an optimal duty cycle is 40% and the optimized ranges vary from 30%−60%. Heating with an X-mode polarization is more efficient than with the O-mode case in VLF/ELF wave generation. Nevertheless, an optimal duty cycle is almost independent of HF wave polarizations. To obtain better VLF/ELF generation, optional fHF may be 0.8−0.9 times of foE for the O-mode heating and 0.75−0.85 times for the X-mode polarization case. Finally, the variations of these two parameters in different latitudes are discussed.     

格架松弛对燃料棒湍流激励及微振磨损的影响研究

假设所有支承有效,基于燃料棒模态分析的结果,根据压水堆燃料棒的流场分布特征,采用功率谱密度表征湍流激励,结合相关功率谱密度试验参数,求解了各阶模态的振动位移均方值,基于ARCHARD磨损公式计算了燃料棒刚凸位置的磨损深度。由于制造工艺、运输、辐照的影响,格架对燃料棒的夹持作用可能松弛。依次假设格架单个刚凸及弹簧松弛,研究了松弛对燃料棒模态、流致振动以及磨损的影响。结果表明：格架弹簧的松弛对固有频率的影响可忽略;原振幅较大的位置附近刚凸松弛对固有频率影响明显;堆芯入口及出口的横向流速较大,燃料棒底部和顶部的湍流激励振幅较大,这些位置的刚凸支承松弛使湍流激励振幅明显增大,中间位置的刚凸支承松弛对振幅影响较小;刚凸支承松弛对磨损深度的影响与对湍流激励最大振幅的影响趋势基本一致。磨损除了与湍流激励振幅相关,还与固有频率相关,顶部振型和频率乘积的影响大于底部格架位置,顶部格架刚凸松弛对磨损影响最大。     

Operation Mode on Pulse Modulation in Atmospheric Radio Frequency Glow Discharges

The discharge operation regime of pulse modulated atmospheric radio frequency(RF) glow discharge in helium is investigated on the duty cycle and frequency of modulation pulses.The characteristics of radio frequency discharge burst in terms of breakdown voltage, alpha(α)-gamma(γ) mode transition voltage and current are demonstrated by the discharge current voltage characteristics. The minimum breakdown voltage of RF discharge burst was obtained at the duty cycle of 20% and frequency of 400 k Hz, respectively. The α-γ mode transition of RF discharge burst occurs at higher voltage and current by reducing the duty cycle and elevating the modulation frequency before the RF discharge burst evolving into the ignition phase, in which the RF discharge burst can operate stably in the γ mode. It proposes that the intensity and stability of RF discharge burst can be improved by manipulating the duty cycle and modulation frequency in pulse modulated atmospheric RF glow discharge.     

Investigation of the interaction between NS-DBD plasma-induced vortexes and separated flow over a swept wing

The effect of nanosecond pulsed dielectric barrier discharge(NS-DBD) plasma flow separation control is closely related to the actuation frequency,because it involves the interaction between plasma-induced vortexes and separated flow.In order to study the mechanism of NS-DBD plasma flow separation control over a swept wing,especially the influence of the actuation frequency,at first,experimental studies of the actuation frequencies at 100 Hz are conducted to validate the numerical simulation meth...     

Numerical Investigation of Plasma Active Flow Control

Based on the theory of EHD (electronhydrodynamic) ,a simplified volume force model is applied to simulation to analyze the traits of plasma flow control in flow field, in which the cold plasma is generated by a DBD (dielectric-barrier-discharge) actuator. With the paraelectric action of volume force in electric field, acceleration characteristics of the plasma flow are investigated for different excitation intensities of RF(radio frequency) power for the actuator. Furthermore, the plasma acceleration leads to an asymmetric distribution of flow field, and hence induces the deflection of jet plume , then results in a significant deflection angle of 6.26o thrust-vectoring effect. It appears that the plasma flow control technology is a new tentative method for the thrust-vectoring control of a space vehicle.     

Experimental investigation of lift enhancement for flying wing aircraft using nanosecond DBD plasma actuators

The effects of the arrangement position and control parameters of nanosecond dielectric barrier discharge(NS-DBD)plasma actuators on lift enhancement for flying wing aircraft were investigated through wind tunnel experiments at a flow speed of 25 m s~(-1).The aerodynamic forces and moments were obtained by a six-component balance at angles of attack ranging from-4°to 28°.The lift,drag and pitching moment coefficients were compared for the cases with and without plasma control.The results revealed that the maximum control effect was achieved by placing the actuator at the leading edge of the inner and middle wing,for which the maximum lift coefficient increased by 37.8%and the stall angle of attack was postponed by 8°compared with the plasma-off case.The effects of modulation frequency and discharge voltage were also investigated.The results revealed that the lift enhancement effect of the NS-DBD plasma actuators was strongly influenced by the modulation frequency.Significant control effects were obtained at/=70 Hz,corresponding to F~+≈1.The result for the pitching moment coefficient demonstrated that the plasma actuator can induce the reattachment of the separation flows when it is actuated.However,the results indicated that the discharge voltage had a negligible influence on the lift enhancement effect.     

主泵高压冷却器盘管的流致振动分析

为验证反应堆冷却剂泵（简称主泵）用高压冷却器结构设计在正常运行工况下可避免流致振动的发生,本研究依次从漩涡脱落、流体弹性不稳定和湍流激励3个方面分析了高压冷却器的壳侧流体对中间盘管振动产生的影响。采用预应力模态分析得到了螺旋管的固有频率为1.877 Hz,便于后续评定的对比;针对最大流通面积和最小流通面积2种极限情况分别计算了漩涡脱落频率,得到固有频率与漩涡脱落频率的比值均小于2;应用卡曼涡流频率计算得出螺旋管的流弹不稳定临界流速大于壳侧间隙流速,说明壳侧流体的流速未达到螺旋管的流弹不稳定临界流速;选用合适的螺旋管束半经验模型计算得到湍流激振的中心主频率是螺旋管固有频率的3.76倍。漩涡脱落、流体弹性不稳定和湍流激励的计算分析结果充分证明高压冷却器的结构设计是安全合理的,可满足核电厂的使用要求。      

主泵高压冷却器盘管的流致振动分析

To verify that the high-pressure cooler structure of the reactor coolant pump (reffered to as the main pump) can avoid the flow-induced vibration under normal operating conditions, this work analyzes the influence of the shell-side fluid on the vibration of the intermediate coil from three aspects, including the vortex shedding, the fluid-elastic instability and the turbulent excitation. The natural frequency of the helical tube equal to 1.877 Hz is determined by using the pre-stressed modal analysis for the comparison of subsequent evaluations. The vortex frequency is calculated for the maximum and the minimum flow areas, respectively, and the ratio of the natural frequency to the vortex frequency is less than 2. The flow velocity instability of the helical tube calculated by the Karman vortex frequency is higher than that of the shell side gap, indicating that the flow velocity of the inner shell side does not reach the critical velocity of the flow elastic instability of the helical tube. Besides, the center frequency of the turbulent excitation calculated by appropriate semi-empirical model of the helical tube bundle is 3.76 times the natural frequency of the helical tube. The results of these three calculations prove that the structural design of the HP-cooler is safe and reasonable, and can satisfy the requirements of nuclear power plants.     

Experimental study on dynamic stall control based on AC-DBD actuation

To explore AC-DBD's ability in controlling dynamic stall,a practical SC-1095 airfoil of a helicopter was selected,and systematic wind tunnel experiments were carried out through direct aerodynamic measurements.The effectiveness of dynamic stall control under steady and unsteady actuation is verified.The influence of parameters such as constant actuation voltage,pulsed actuation voltage,pulsed actuation frequency and duty ratio on dynamic stall control effect is studied under the flow condition of k=0.15 above the airfoil,and the corresponding control mechanism is discussed.Steady actuation can effectively reduce the hysteresis loop area of dynamic lift,and control the peak drag and moment coefficient.For unsteady actuation,there is an optimal duty ratio DC=50％,which has the best effect in improving the lift and drag characteristics,and there is a threshold of pulsed actuation voltage in dynamic stall control.The optimal dimensionless frequency will not be found;different F+have different control advantages in different aerodynamic coefficients of different pitching stages.Unsteady actuation has obvious control advantages in improving the lift-drag characteristics and hysteresis,while steady actuation can better control the large nose-down moment.     

Large eddy simulation on the flow characteristics of an argon thermal plasma jet

Large eddy simulations based on the CFD software OpenFOAM have been used to study the effect of Reynolds number and turbulence intensity on the flow and mixing characteristics of an argon thermal plasma jet.Detailed analysis was carried out with respect to four aspects:the average flow field,the instantaneous flow field,turbulence statistical characteristics and the self-similarity.It was shown that for the argon thermal plasma jet with low Reynolds number,increasing the turbulence intensity will increase the turbulent transport mechanism in the mixing layer rather than in the jet axis,leading to the faster development of turbulence.The effect of the turbulent transport mechanism increases with increasing Reynolds number.However,the characteristics of flow and mixing are not affected by turbulence intensity for high Reynolds number situations.It was also found that the mean axial velocity and mean temperature in the axis of the turbulent thermal plasma jet satisfy the self-similarity aspects downstream.In addition,decay constant K is 1.25,which is much smaller than that(5.7-6.1)of the turbulent cold gas jet and has nothing to do with the Reynolds number or turbulence intensity in the jet inlet.     

Control of flow separation over a wing model with plasma synthetic jets

An array of 30 plasma synthetic jet actuators (PSJAs) is deployed using a modified multichannel discharge circuit to suppress the flow separation over a straight-wing model. The lift and drag of the wing model are measured by a force balance, and the velocity fields over the suction surface are captured by a particle imaging velocimetry system. Results show that the flow separation of the straight wing originates from the middle of the model and expands towards the wingtips as the angle of attack increases. The flow separation can be suppressed effectively by the PSJAs array. The best flow control effect is achieved at a dimensionless discharge frequency of F⁺ = 1, with the peak lift coefficient increased by 10.5% and the stall angle postponed by 2°. To further optimize the power consumption of the PSJAs, the influence of the density of PSJAs on the flow control effect is investigated. A threshold of the density exits (with the spanwise spacing of PSJAs being 0.2 times of the chord length in the current research), below which the flow control effect starts to deteriorate remarkably. In addition, for comparison purposes, a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuator is installed at the same location of the PSJAs. At the same power consumption, 4.9% increase of the peak lift coefficient is achieved by DBD, while that achieved by PSJAs reaches 5.6%.     

Estimation of deuterium recovery from the separation of water isotopes in thermal-diffusion columns of a countercurrent-flow frazier scheme with optimal plate aspect ratio

The effect of plate aspect ratio on the performance of deuterium recovery from the separation of water–isotope mixture in thermal-diffusion columns of a countercurrent-flow Frazier scheme was investigated. The equations for the optimal plate aspect ratios and the corresponding maximum recovery and maximum production rate were derived. Considerable improvement in performance is obtained when thermal-diffusion columns are operated at the optimal plate aspect ratio. Further improvement can be achieved if the scheme is connected and operated in countercurrent flow, instead of concurrent flow.     

Thermodynamic analysis of a solid nuclear fuel element surrounded by flow of coolant through a concentric annular channel

A continuous quest for efficient utilization of energy resources has motivated the researchers to search for optimal design and operating conditions during various energy conversion techniques. These conditions for such systems are often proposed by minimizing the destroyed exergy potential in course of the process. In the present paper a second law analysis is done for a nuclear fuel element inside a concentric annular coolant passage. The entropy generation analysis has been carried out through a conjugate approach, with steady state temperature profiles within the fuel element and a thermodynamic approach within fluid. The effect of solid core heat generation and the temperature gradients inside solid core, fuel-clad gap and cladding are considered as well along with the irreversibilities arising out of fluid flow under turbulent condition. The effect of Reynolds number, duty parameter, diameter ratio, Biot number, dimensionless heat flux and thermal conductivity ratios on overall entropy generation characteristics have been investigated and interpreted physically. The validation of the present calculations was confirmed by best-estimate thermal-hydraulic code RELAP. The new thermodynamic design methodology presented in this paper adheres to the safety limits in temperature. The present analysis can be extended for complex fuel pellet arrangements in subchannel structures by an “equivalent annulus model”.