Fabrication of a multi-stage plasma synthetic jet actuator using printed electronics

A new concept of electrode shape and arrangement is proposed to develop a multi-stage plasma synthetic jet actuator for the low-voltage operation. Exposed and covered electrodes, which have complicated shapes due to electrical wiring to the inner side of annular electrodes, are fabricated by an inkjet printing process using a silver nanoparticle-based ink. The plasma synthetic jet actuator developed in this study can be operated at 1000 V or lower. The discharge spreads uniformly from only the inner side of each annular electrode, inducing a unidirectional ionic wind toward the center of the coaxial electrode circle. Particle image velocimetry measurements reveal that the wall-normal jet induced by the multi-stage plasma synthetic jet actuator can be characterized as an axisymmetric free shear flow. The electrical and mechanical characteristics are similar to the linear-type dielectric-barrier-discharge plasma actuators. We also demonstrate that the printed electronics technique is suitable for the generation of arbitrary electrode shapes and arrangements and hence is a powerful tool for the realization of industrial applications of active airflow control devices using atmospheric pressure discharge.