Validity of Three-Fluid Plasma Modeling for Alternating-Current Dielectric-Barrier-Discharge Plasma Actuator

The validity of numerical modeling of discharge plasma in dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator is evaluated by comparing the simulation and experimental results under the same conditions. Discharge plasma behavior is numerically simulated based on a three-fluid plasma model. Regarding the induced jet structure, although the simulation tends to underestimate the jet thickness and overestimate the maximum velocity, the discrepancies are small considering the quite simple modeling. In addition, the values of thrust force in the simulation are consistent with those in the experiment only within 10–20%. On the other hand, the simulation underestimates the power consumption by 40–50% mainly due to the assumption of two-dimensionality. Furthermore, the thrust force and power consumption are investigated from the viewpoint of characteristics for voltage amplitude, voltage waveform, and dielectric material. As a result, the discharge mode in the simulation, which strongly affects the electrohydrodynamic force generation characteristics, needs to be consistent with that in the experiment to reproduce the voltage waveform characteristics of thrust force. In addition, to reproduce the dielectric material characteristics of thrust force, not only permittivity but also secondary electron emission coefficient needs to be set to appropriate values for each material.