Experimental study on anti-icing performance of NS-DBD plasma actuator

An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the anti-icing performance of NS-DBD plasma actuator under the conditions of airflow speed U = 65 m/s, ambient temperature T = -10 °C, liquid water content LWC = 0.5 g/m³, mean-volume diameter MVD = 25 μm, mainly to clarify the effect of pulse frequency and voltage amplitude of actuation on anti-icing performance. A NACA0012 airfoil model with a chord length of c = 280 mm was used in the tests. The NS-DBD plasma actuator was mounted at the front part of the airfoil. A FLIR infrared (IR) imager and CCD camera were used to record the anti-icing process of the NS-DBD plasma actuator. Two typical discharge conditions were selected for the anti-icing experiments. The first was HV-LF discharge, corresponding to discharge under higher voltage amplitude with lower pulse frequency; the second was LV-HF discharge, corresponding to discharge under lower voltage amplitude with higher pulse frequency. Results reveal that NS-DBD is a very promising method for anti-icing. With the same power consumption, the LV-HF discharge shows a better anti-icing performance compared to HV-LF discharge under the same icing conditions. In view of pulse duration and duty circle, combined with heat dissipation, it is suggested that there is a threshold frequency, corresponding to the voltage amplitude of electric actuation signal and the incoming flow condition, to achieve effective anti-icing performance.