Sharif Digital Repository

Over the past decade, there has been a growing interest in dielectric-barrier-discharge (DBD) plasma actuators. The lack of a general model to accurately simulate the related phenomena is one of the primary limitations in studying such type of actuators. One of the most frequently used models of this type was proposed by Suzen and Huang (S-H). Despite the numerous efforts made to improve this model, including a recent work of the authors, some deficiencies still exist. In this study, new modifications have been introduced to improve the performance and accuracy of the S-H phenomenological model. Here, a relation between the electrical-potential and charge-density equations has been made in... 

Wind turbines are of the most promising devices to cut down carbon emissions. However, some phenomena that adversely affect their performance are inevitable. The aim of the present paper is to investigate flow separation prevention exploiting leading edge (LE) single dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator (SDBD-PA) on an airfoil belonging to a section of a locally developed wind turbine. The numerical results of the surface pressure distribution over the airfoil were compared with the experimental measurements carried out by the authors on the same blade section, and good agreement was found between numerical and experimental data for both plasma-OFF and plasma-ON cases. An in-depth... 

Effects of dielectric barrier discharge plasma have been studied on the wake velocity profiles of a section of a 660 kW wind turbine blade in plunging motion in a wind tunnel. The corresponding unsteady velocity profiles show remarkable improvement when the plasma actuators were operating and the angles of attack of the model were beyond the static stall angles of the airfoil. As a result the drag force was considerably reduced. It is further observed that the plasma-induced flow attenuates the leading edge vortices that are periodically shed into wake and diminishes the large eddies downstream. The favorable effects of the plasma augmentation are shown to occur near the uppermost and... 

This paper investigates the potential of using an active flow control technique to modify stall flutter oscillations of a NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) 0015 wing section. Wind tunnel experiments have been performed with a test-rig that provides the elastic degree of freedom in pitch. Measurements of the clean airfoil are taken at preset angles of θ 0 = 6 ° - 12 °, and for Reynolds numbers of R e c = 6.2 × 10 4 - 1.25 × 10 5, which reveal the dependency of the stall flutter oscillations to Rec and θ0. Then, flow control experiments are carried out at θ 0 = 10 ° and R e c = 1.04 × 10 5. Two dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators have been employed simultaneously to... 

We have investigated the usage of a Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuator to improve the aerodynamic performance of an offshore 6 MW wind turbine. By controlling the aerodynamic load combined with pitch angles of 2, 5, and 10 degrees, we studied the plasma actuator effect on the overall harvested power. Actuators were installed in single and tandem configurations in different chord-wise locations to find the optimum design. The improved phenomenological model developed by authors was used in an analysis to simulate the interaction of the electrostatic field, the ionized particles and the fluid flow. A design software was used to estimate the harvested power of the real 3D blade.... 

An improved phenomenological model is presented for numerical simulation of a Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuator for separation control of high angle of attack flow over a wind turbine airfoil. Based on existing numerical models and experimental measurements, a new model is proposed for prediction of the length of a plasma extent which is more consistent with previous observations. The electrical and hydrodynamic solvers used in the present study are validated against published experimental data. Then the applicability of a DBD actuator, mounted on a DU 91-W2-250 airfoil is extensively analyzed for a wide range of operating voltages and frequencies. The analysis is completely... 

The present study numerically investigates the feasibility of using multiple dielectric barrier discharge (multi-DBD) plasma actuators as a novel approach for active flow control over a large horizontal axis wind turbine rotor. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory 5 MW offshore wind turbine is used as the baseline case. This turbine uses pitch control system to adjust the generated power above its rated wind speeds, but at lower speeds, this system remains inactive. In this paper, the operational condition speed is considered lower than the rated wind speed. The mathematical electro-static model is implemented to simulate the effects of plasma actuator on the external flow and the... 

This paper investigates the stall control over an airfoil employing dual excitation of separated shear layers with dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators. This novel approach is studied experimentally on the NACA 0015 airfoil at the angle of attack and Reynolds number of 14° and 0.3×106, respectively. To analyze the baseline flow, Time-averaged pressure distributions on the airfoil surfaces are evaluated with 40 pressure taps. Further, the dominant natural frequencies associated with flow structures in the airfoil wake are examined utilizing a hot-wire anemometer. Two plasma actuators, one on the suction side just upstream the separation point and the other on the pressure side at the... 

The objective of the present study is to investigate the capability of field-programmable gate array hardware in numerical simulation of a model of a dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator to accelerate the calculations. The reconfigurable hardware is designed such that it is possible to reprogram its architecture after manufacturing. This provides the capability to design and implement various architectures for several applications. Two reconfigurable chips are used in the present study, one of which consists of a programmable logic unit and a typical microprocessor. This hybrid architecture makes the high performance of the reconfigurable hardware in custom computing and the... 

One promising solution to achieve moderate or intense low-oxygen dilution (MILD) combustion under lower temperatures may be using non-equilibrium plasma discharge. Plasma assisted combustion can extend the flammability limits by reducing the auto-ignition temperature of the reactants and can be a great approach to achieve steady MILD combustion under extreme conditions through decreasing ignition delay time. In particular, the influence of the outlet flows from a co-flowing cylindrical dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) on the CH4/N2 combustion under MILD combustion has been investigated numerically through some simplifications on plasma discharge. A three streams coaxial burner are modeled... 

An extensive experimental investigation was conducted to study the effects of Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD), on the flow field of an airfoil at low Reynolds number. The DBD was mounted near the leading edge of a section of a wind turbine blade. It is believed that DBD can postpone the separation point on the airfoil by injecting momentum to the flow. The effects of steady actuations on the velocity profiles in the wake region have been investigated. The tests were performed at α = 4 to 36 degrees i.e. from low to deep stall angles of attack regions. Both surface pressure distribution and wake profile show remarkable improvement at high angles of attack, beyond the static stall angle of... 

Effects of dielectric barrier discharge plasma have been studied on the wake velocity profiles of a section of a 660 kW wind turbine blade in plunging motion in a wind tunnel. The corresponding unsteady velocity profiles show remarkable improvement when the plasma actuators were operating and the angles of attack of the model were beyond the static stall angles of the airfoil. As a result the drag force was considerably reduced. It is further observed that the plasma-induced flow attenuates the leading edge vortices that are periodically shed into wake and diminishes the large eddies downstream. The favorable effects of the plasma augmentation are shown to occur near the uppermost and... 

In this research, surface modification of aromatic polyamide thin film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes was carried out using dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma treatment to improve the performance and fouling resistance of prepared RO membranes. First, polyamide TFC RO membranes were synthesized via interfacial polymerization of m-phenylenediamine and trimesoyl chloride monomers over microporous polysulfone support membrane. Next, the DBD plasma treatment with 15 s, 30 s, 60 s, and 90 s duration was used for surface modification. The surface properties of RO membranes were characterized by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR),...