RailPAc: A Rail Plasma Actuator for High Authority Aerodynamic Flow Control

Abstract

A rail plasma actuator (RailPAc) is a plasma based device with a high control authority. A directional flow control is initiated with a motion of a high-speed arc (~100 m/s) that progates due to the Lorentz force. The report summarizes the important results of a three year investigation into the relevance of a RailPAc for stall alleviation on a retreating blade. The experiments include arc dynamics measurement,control authority assesement, induced velocity measurement, and stall alleviation demonstration. The results show that a RAilPAc is ideally suited for a rotorcraft application and has the sufficient control authority to influence the flow at full-scale rotorcraft conditions. The RailPAc characteristics discovered in this study warrants its implementation on a full-scale rotorcraft for further study.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 24, 2017
Accession Number
AD1057558

Entities

People

  • Jayant Sirohi
  • Laxminarayan L. Raja

Organizations

  • University of Texas at Austin

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Boundary Layer
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Convection
  • Electric Arcs
  • Electrical Properties
  • Flow Visualization
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Geometry
  • Light Sources
  • Mach Number
  • Measurement
  • Pressure Distribution
  • Pressure Gradients
  • Pulsed Power
  • Resonant Frequency
  • Turbulent Mixing
  • Two Dimensional

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Marine Ecological Systems Migration
  • Plasma Physics.