On the mechanical efficiency of dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators

The mechanical power production and electrical power consumption of the dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator is investigated for different operating conditions. The ratio of these two values delivers the mechanical efficiency of the actuator as a flow acceleration device. The general trend is that higher carrier frequencies and voltages lead to higher values of the efficiency. The values that were found for the mechanical efficiency are very small, the highest recorded value is only 0.18%. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3597652]