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The serpentine plasma actuator represents a broad class of
plasma actuator Plasma or plasm may refer to: Science * Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter * Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral * Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics Biology * Blood pl ...
. The actuators vary from the standard type in that their electrode geometry has been modified in to be periodic across its span.


History

This class of plasma actuators was developed at the Applied Physics Research Group (APRG) at the
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...
in 2008 by
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for the purpose of controlling laminar and
turbulent In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...
boundary layer In physics and fluid mechanics, a boundary layer is the thin layer of fluid in the immediate vicinity of a bounding surface formed by the fluid flowing along the surface. The fluid's interaction with the wall induces a no-slip boundary cond ...
flows. Since then, APRG has continued to characterize and develop uses for this class of plasma actuators. Several patents resulted from the early work on serpentine geometry plasma actuators. In 2013, these actuators started to get broader attention in the scientific press, and several articles were written about these actuators, including articles in AIP's EurekAlert, Inside Science and various blogs.


Current Research and Operating Mechanisms

Serpentine plasma actuators (like other
Dielectric Barrier Discharge Dielectric-barrier discharge (DBD) is the electrical discharge between two electrodes separated by an insulating dielectric barrier. Originally called silent (inaudible) discharge and also known as ozone production discharge or partial disch ...
actuators, i.e.
plasma actuator Plasma or plasm may refer to: Science * Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter * Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral * Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics Biology * Blood pl ...
s) are able to induce an atmospheric plasma and introduce an electrohydrodynamic body force to a fluid. This body force can be used to implement flow control, and there are a range of potential applications, including drag reduction for aircraft and flow stabilization in combustion chambers. The important distinction between serpentine plasma actuators and more tradition geometries is that the geometry of the electrodes has been modified in order to periodic across its span. As the electrode has been made periodic, the resulting plasma and body force are also spanwise periodic. With this spanwise periodicity, three-dimensional flow effects can be induced in the flow, which cannot be done with more traditional plasma actuator geometries. It is thought that the introduction of three-dimensional flow effects allow for the plasma actuators to apply much greater levels of control authority as they allow for the plasma actuators to project onto a greater range of physical mechanisms (such as boundary layer streaks or secondary instabilities of the Tollmien-Schlichting wave). Recent work indicate that these plasma actuators may have a significant impact on controlling laminar and transitional flows on a flat plate. In addition, the serpentine actuator has been experimentally demonstrated to increase lift, decrease drag and generate controlling rolling moments when applied to aircraft wing geometries. With the greater level of control authority that these plasma actuators may potentially possess, there is currently research being performed at several labs in the
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and in the
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looking to apply these actuators for real world applications. Recent numerical work predicted significant turbulent drag reduction by collocating serpentine plasma actuators in a pattern to modify energetic modes of transitional flow.


See also

*
Plasma actuator Plasma or plasm may refer to: Science * Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter * Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral * Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics Biology * Blood pl ...
* Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle * Applied Physics Research Group *
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...
*
University of Florida College of Engineering The Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering is the largest professional school, the second largest college, and one of the top three research units at the University of Florida. The college was founded in 1910, and in 2015 was named in honor of ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Serpentine geometry plasma actuator Plasma physics Actuators