Active flow control is a topic in full expansion due to associated industrial applications of huge importance, particularly for aeronautics. Among all flow control methods, such as the use of mechanical flaps, wall synthetic jets or MEMS, plasma-based devices are very promising. The main advantages of such systems are their robustness, simplicity, low power consumption and ability for real-time control at high frequency. This paper is a review of the worldwide works on this topic, from its origin to the present. It is divided into two main parts. The first one is dedicated to the recent knowledge concerning the electric wind induced by surface non-thermal plasma actuators, acting in air at atmospheric pressure. Typically, it can reach 8 m s−1 at a distance of 0.5 mm from the wall. In the second part, works concerning active airflow control by these plasma actuators are presented. Very efficient results have been obtained for low-velocity subsonic airflows (typically U∞ ≤ 30 m s−1 and Reynolds number of a few 105), and promising results at higher velocities indicate that plasma actuators could be used in aeronautics.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3727/40/3/S01/pdf

Airflow control by non-thermal plasma actuators

The major increase in discharge duration and plasma energy in a next step DT fusion reactor will give rise to important plasma-material effects that will critically influence its operation, safety and performance. Erosion will increase to a scale of several centimetres from being barely measurable at a micron scale in today's tokamaks. Tritium co-deposited with carbon will strongly affect the operation of machines with carbon plasma facing components. Controlling plasma-wall interactions is critical to achieving high performance in present day tokamaks, and this is likely to continue to be the case in the approach to practical fusion reactors. Recognition of the important consequences of these phenomena stimulated an internationally co-ordinated effort in the field of plasma-surface interactions supporting the Engineering Design Activities of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project (ITER), and significant progress has been made in better understanding these issues. The paper reviews the underlying physical processes and the existing experimental database of plasma-material interactions both in tokamaks and laboratory simulation facilities for conditions of direct relevance to next step fusion reactors. Two main topical groups of interaction are considered: (i) erosion/redeposition from plasma sputtering and disruptions, including dust and flake generation and (ii) tritium retention and removal. The use of modelling tools to interpret the experimental results and make projections for conditions expected in future devices is explained. Outstanding technical issues and specific recommendations on potential R&D avenues for their resolution are presented.

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Plasma{material interactions in current tokamaks and their implications for next step fusion reactors

Plasma–liquid interactions represent a growing interdisciplinary area of research involving plasma science, fluid dynamics, heat and mass transfer, photolysis, multiphase chemistry and aerosol science. This review provides an assessment of the state-of-the-art of this multidisciplinary area and identifies the key research challenges. The developments in diagnostics, modeling and further extensions of cross section and reaction rate databases that are necessary to address these challenges are discussed. The review focusses on non-equilibrium plasmas.

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Plasma-liquid interactions: A review and roadmap

Actuators are transducers that convert an electrical signal to a desired physical quantity. Active flow control actuators modify a flow by providing an electronically controllable disturbance. The field of active flow control has witnessed explosive growth in the variety of actuators, which is a testament to both the importance and challenges associated with actuator design. This review provides a framework for the discussion of actuator specifications, characteristics, selection, design, and classification for aeronautical applications. Actuator fundamentals are discussed, and various popular actuator types used in low-to-moderate speed flows are then described, including fluidic, moving object/surface, and plasma actuators. We attempt to highlight the strengths and inevitable drawbacks of each and highlight potential future research directions.

Actuators for Active Flow Control

In recent decades particular interest in applications of nonequilibrium plasma for the problems of plasma-assisted ignition and plasma-assisted combustion has been observed. A great amount of experimental data has been accumulated during this period which provided the grounds for using low temperature plasma of nonequilibrium gas discharges for a number of applications at conditions of high speed flows and also at conditions similar to automotive engines. The paper is aimed at reviewing the data obtained and discusses their treatment. Basic possibilities of low temperature plasma to ignite gas mixtures are evaluated and historical references highlighting pioneering works in the area are presented. The first part of the review discusses plasmas applied to plasma-assisted ignition and combustion. The paper pays special attention to experimental and theoretical analysis of some plasma parameters, such as reduced electric field, electron density and energy branching for different gas discharges. Streamers, pulsed nanosecond discharges, dielectric barrier discharges, radio frequency discharges and atmospheric pressure glow discharges are considered. The second part depicts applications of discharges to reduce the ignition delay time of combustible mixtures, to ignite transonic and supersonic flows, to intensify ignition and to sustain combustion of lean mixtures. The results obtained by different authors are cited, and ways of numerical modelling are discussed. Finally, the paper draws some conclusions on the main achievements and prospects of future investigations in the field.

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Plasma assisted ignition and combustion

A review is presented of the studies in the former Soviet Union and in the USA of the mutual interactions of plasmas and high speed flows and shocks. There are reports from as early as the 1980s of large changes in the standoff distance ahead of a blunt body in ballistic tunnels, significantly reduced drag and modifications of travelling shocks in bounded weakly ionized gases. Energy addition to the flow results in an increase in the local sound speed that leads to expected modifications of the flow and changes to the pressure distribution around a vehicle due to the decrease in local Mach number. The critical question was, did a plasma provide a significant energy multiplier for the system? There have been a large number of experimental studies on the influence of a weakly ionized plasma on relatively low Mach number shocks and inherently also on the influence of the shock on the plasma. This literature is reviewed and illustrated with representative examples. The convergence through more controlled experiments and improved modelling to a physics understanding of the effects being essentially due to heating is outlined. It is demonstrated that the heating in many cases is global; however, tailored experiments with positive columns, dielectric barrier discharges and focused microwave plasmas can produce very localized heating. The latter appears more attractive for energy efficiency in flow control. Tailored localized ionization and thermal effects are also of interest for high speed inlet shock control and for producing reliable ignition for short residence time combustors, and work in these areas is also reviewed.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3727/38/4/R01/pdf

Plasmas in high speed aerodynamics

The properties of an atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) are examined in a single-cell dielectric capillary configuration. In contrast to some other flow-driven APPJs, this stable, cold plasma jet is electrically driven, composed of rapidly propagating ionization fronts with speeds of the order of 107cm∕s. Using spatially and temporally resolved optical diagnostics, it is demonstrated that the plasma jet is initiated independent of the dielectric barrier discharge inside the capillary. It is also shown that the properties and dynamics of this APPJ are directly analogous to those of positive corona streamer discharges.

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A streamer-like atmospheric pressure plasma jet

We have measured spatiotemporal structures of excited species by laser spectroscopic methods in a plasma jet, which was driven by a bipolar impulse voltage pulse train of the order of kilohertz repetition rate applied across a pair of electrodes wrapped around a glass tube with a helium gas flow. We noticed the differences between the positive and the negative phases of the voltage applied to the front-side electrode placed closer to the tube exit while the back-side electrode was grounded. The experimental results showed that the radial distribution of the excited species had a hollow shape at the centre in the positive voltage phase, while it had a more uniform shape in the negative phase. The peak density of the helium metastable atom in the positive phase was almost constant irrespective of the peak applied voltage. However, it increased with the increase in the peak applied voltage in the negative phase. The mechanism causing these differences was argued from the respects of positive and negative corona discharges. We have also investigated the property of the plasma plume under conditions similar to material processing with a conductive substrate placed in front of the plasma jet. In this case, the plasma production by electron impact ionization became dominant near the substrate as was revealed from the spatiotemporal distributions of helium metastable atom and nitrogen ion densities.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3727/43/9/095201/pdf

Investigation of discharge mechanisms in helium plasma jet at atmospheric pressure by laser spectroscopic measurements

A surface dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) in atmospheric pressure air was excited either by low frequency (0.3–2 kHz) high-voltage ac or by short, high-voltage pulses at repetition rates from 50 to 600 pulses s−1. The short-pulse excited discharge was more diffuse and did not have the pronounced bright multiple cathode spots observed in the ac excited discharge. The discharge voltage, current and average power deposited into the discharge were calculated for both types of excitation. As a measure of plasma-chemical efficiency, the ozone number density was measured by UV absorption as a function of average deposited power. The density of ozone produced by ac excitation did not increase so rapidly as that produced by short-pulse excitation as a function of average power, with a maximum measured density of ~3 × 1015 cm−3 at 25 W. The maximum ozone production achieved by short-pulse excitation was ~8.5 × 1015 cm−3 at 20 W, which was four times greater than that achieved by ac excitation at the same power level.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3727/39/20/016/pdf

Biswa Ganguly

Papers

Plasmas in high speed aerodynamics

A streamer-like atmospheric pressure plasma jet

Investigation of discharge mechanisms in helium plasma jet at atmospheric pressure by laser spectroscopic measurements

Comparison of high-voltage ac and pulsed operation of a surface dielectric barrier discharge

Electric-field-induced flame speed modification