Plasma actuator sareelectricaldevicesthatgenerateawallboundedjetwithouttheuseof
anymovingparts.Foraerodynamicapplicationstheycanbeusedasflowcontroldevices
to delayseparationandaugmentliftonawing.Thestandardplasmaactuatorconsistsofa
singleencapsulated(ground)electrode.Theaimofthisprojectistoinvestigatetheeffect
of varyingthenumberanddistributionofencapsulatedelectrodesinthedielectriclayer.
Utilisingatransformercascade,avarietyofinputvoltagesarestudiedfortheireffect.In
the quiescentenvironmentofaFaradaycagethevelocityflowfieldisrecordedusing
particleimagevelocimetry.Throughunderstandingofthemechanismsinvolvedin
producing thewalljetandtheimportanceoftheencapsulatedelectrodeanovelactuator
designisproposed.Theactuatordesigndistributestheencapsulatedelectrodethroughout
the dielectriclayer.Theexperimentshaveshownthatactuatorswithashallowinitial
encapsulatedelectrodeinducevelocitiesgreaterthanthebaselinecaseatthesame
voltage. Actuatorswithadeepinitialencapsulatedelectrodeareabletoinducethehighest
velocities astheycanoperateathighervoltageswithoutbreakdownofthedielectric.