Plasma Discharge Characteristics and Experimentally Determined Boundary Conditions for a Plasma Actuator

Particle (PIC-DSMC) and fluid plasma simulations are carried out of a plasma actuator discharge. The results, when compared to experiments, show that the plasma may be operating under two discharge modes simultaneously: 1) a Townsend avalanche which dominates the electrical properties of the plasma and 2) a glow discharge which dominates the force production. In addition, experiments are carried out to determine the voltage boundary conditions on the plasma using a V-dot probe technique. The results show that the voltage across the plasma is less than half of that which is applied across the electrodes. The voltage across the plasma is shown to be a maximum value independent of the voltage applied to the electrodes.