An Experimental Investigation on New Long-lifetime SDBD Actuators

In this work, four new type of plasma actuator with a "sandwich" structure is designed and the plasma discharge and aging experiments were carried out. The four types "sandwich" actuators were composed of pure PI film(A)) and PI/Al2O3 nano-composite film(B), (called ""AAA"", ""BBB"", ""ABA"", ""BAB"" types actuation Device). The discharge and thermal characteristics of the ""BAB"" type plasma actuator and the conventional actuator were compared by recording the discharge image, the voltage and current waveform and the infrared thermal image. The power and energy changes during the discharge aging process of the actuator were calculated and the discharge life of the actuator was determined. The surface morphology and surface chemical structure were analyzed by SEM and XPS, and the surface characteristics and material aging state of the barrier dielectric material were obtained. The results show that the "BAB" actuator discharges more stable than the conventional actuator after discharge aging for 4 hours, and the plasma was more uniform without obvious discharge channels. The "BAB" actuator consumes greater power and generate more volume force. Under the condition of 12kV, the discharge power reaches 83.5W and the volume force reaches 9.2mN/m. Compared with the traditional actuator, it has increased by 19.1% and 22.6% respectively. The "sandwich" structure plasma actuator can effectively suppress the rapid heating effect of nanosecond pulses and exhibit a more excellent thermal conductivity. Under the condition of 12kV and 2kHz, the discharge aging life of the "BAB" actuator reaches 3h20min, which is 29.03% longer than that of the traditional actuator.