Experimental Investigations on the Effect of Dielectric Barrier Discharge on the Hypersonic Flow Around a Flat Plate

Introduction

Surface dielectric barrier discharges (DBD) are known to offer potential flow control techniques for low speed flows. A well known application of DBD in low speed flows is separation control as illustrated by Little et al. [1]. For high speed flows (supersonic and hypersonic flows) there is a need for deeper understanding of their nature of interaction and applicability. Literature on low speed flows suggests the body force field created by DBD, as the reason for flow alteration (Boeuf and Pitchford [2]). High speed flows, hypersonic flows in particular, are characterized by high flow kinetic energy, and thus one cannot ignore the possible energy interactions the flow can have with the regions of high temperature in the field (as may be the case with discharge).