Operation of the Aerodynamic Plasma Actuator at High Altitude Timothy Nichols and Joshua Rovey Department of Mechanical

1. Operation of the Aerodynamic Plasma Actuator at High Altitude Timothy Nichols and Joshua Rovey Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Missouri University of Science & Technology Presented to: Thesis Committee April 24th, 2012

2. Outline • Background • Research Approach • Results • Conclusion

3. Background • Effects of low pressure environment on actuators: • Large extension of plasma region • Power consumption increases • Force and effectiveness decrease

4. Background • Force production depends on number of ions and electric field • More power going into creating plasma instead of accelerating it?

5. Research Approach • Spatiotemporal evolution of the surface potential and electric field found using capacitive probes • Experimentally determine why force decreases • Does calculated average force agree with experimentally determined force in literature?

6. V-Dot Probes

7. V-Dot Probes

8. V-Dot Probes

9. V-Dot Probes

10. Results

11. Results 760 Torr 88 Torr

12. Results 760 Torr 88 Torr

13. Results

14. Current Progress

15. Results

16. Results

17. Results

18. Results

19. Conclusions • Peak physical charge deposition corresponds closely with peak surface potential • Electric field remains largely unchanged close to the exposed electrode edge • Surface potential is spread across surface • E-Field is zero for approximately 80% of surface at lower pressures compared to 55% at 760 Torr • 20 times more plasma created at lower pressures than at atmospheric conditions • 88% of this plasma in region with E = 0 • More power into creating plasma than accelerating it

20. Questions

21. Back-up Slides

22. Back-up Slides

23. Back-up Slides