Dielectric barrier discharge control of a turbulent boundary layer in a supersonic flow

Abstract

We demonstrate effective manipulation of a turbulent boundary layer at Mach 4.7 conditions using a surface dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) actuator. The freestream conditions of low static pressure (1 kPa) and temperature (60 K) are conducive to the visualization of flow features using Rayleigh scattering from condensed CO(2) particles. The boundary layer thinning is observed when spanwise momentum is induced by the low power (6.8 W), low frequency (28 kHz) single actuator pair oriented parallel to the freestream flow. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3473820]