Experimental investigation on airfoil stall separation suppression by multiphase plasma aerodynamic actuation

Experiments on NACA 0015 airfoil stalling separation control based on multiphase plasma aerodynamic actuation were performed in the paper. The effects of the plasma actuation voltage amplitude, phase, input waveform and duty cycle on the lift and drag of the airfoil were examined specifically. The results show that, when the Reynolds number is 4.9 × 10⁵, multiphase plasma aerodynamic actuation can suppress flow separation very well. The critical stalling attack angle of NACA 0015 airfoil can increase by 2°. The flow suppression effect is not sensitive to phase difference. The separated flow can be suppressed when the voltage amplitude and duty cycle reach their threshold values. Once the separated flow is suppressed, the actuation voltage magnitude maintaining flow attachment could be reduced significantly. The research can lay a foundation for the mechanism of multiphase plasma flow control.