Parametric study on the thermodynamic characteristic of DBD plasma actuations pertinent to aircraft icing mitigation

Abstract

Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuators can generate noticeable heating as well as induce momentum to the surrounding flow, which makes them attractive for multifunctional uses such as flow control and anti-/de-icing. In this work, we performed a parametric study to simultaneously quantify both the thermal and mechanical responses of DBD plasma actuation during glow-to-streamer transition. Surface heating was quantified using infrared (IR) thermography, while the actuation-induced thrust was obtained with a high-sensitivity force balance to assess the mechanical output. The measurements indicate that the delivered plasma power varies as a function of key operating and structural material parameters, including the applied voltage, dielectric thickness, and dielectric permittivity. Within the glow-discharge operating state, both heating and thrust scale approximately linearly with the supplied plasma power. When the input power exceeds the glow regime, localized streamer filaments emerge; a larger share of the deposited energy is then released as heat, and the thrust no longer increases. These trends suggest that, in the filamentary mode, energy that would otherwise contribute to mechanical output is increasingly converted into thermal energy.