Dielectric barrier discharge actuator for vehicle drag reduction at highway speeds

We propose and demonstrate reduction of aerodynamic drag for a realistic geometry at highway speeds using serpentine dielectric barrier discharge actuators. A comparable linear plasma actuator fails to reduce the drag at these speeds. Experimental data collected for linear and serpentine plasma actuators under quiescent operating conditions show that the serpentine design has profound effect on near wall flow structure and resulting drag. For certain actuator arrangement, the measured drag reduced by over 14% at 26.8 m/s (60 mph) and over 10% at 31.3 m/s (70 mph) opening up realistic possibility of reasonable energy savings for full scale ground vehicles. In addition, the power consumption data and drag reduction effectiveness for different input signals are also presented.