2014: A new type of plasma actuator based on the distributed high-current surface discharge was suggested and studied

Physicists from Moscow State Univ. suggested and studied a new type of plasma actuator based on the distributed high-current surface discharge.

A plasma sheet (actuator) of 0.5 mm thick consists of a set of parallel charges sliding at the dielectric surface. The energy, which is reached at the nanosecond action of a pulsed discharge on a gas flow can be up to 3 eV per molecule, when the action itself is due to the generation of shock waves from the controlled pulsed energy release. The actuator can affect the shock waves, specifically, in the boundary layer at the supersonic flow of the elements of the aircrafts. Physicists from Lomonosov Moscow State University headed by Professors Nikolay Sysoev and Irina Znamenskaya demonstrated that in the periodic pulsed regime the plasma actuator allows controlling the flows at the aircrafts at transsonic and supersonic speed.