Ionic wind measurements on multi-tip plasma actuators

This work presents an experimental investigation about the effects of triangular tips on the active electrodes of plasma actuators. The tests are performed on two sets of actuators, corona and DBD, parameterized by means of the tip sharpness and the tips number per unit length. A total number of 30 actuators is considered. The devices are evaluated on the basis of the far field ionic wind velocity, that has been chosen as a representative test common to both kinds of actuator. The dataset includes velocity profiles and maps, that can be integrated to give mass ows and electromechanical effciencies. Some results are also presented in the parameter space defined by tip sharpness and tips number per unit length: this gives the chance of defining optimal electrode shapes within each set. In general, the longitudinal velocity of the gas increases downstream of the tips in all the actuators tested, but the velocity field is modified to different extents in the two kinds of actuators, and is more complicated for the DBDs than for the coronas. The tips also increase the effciency of all the actuators, particularly for the corona set, where even the stability is remarkably improved.