Contribution of positive and negative ions to the electrohydrodynamic force in a dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator operating in air

We present a parametric study of the electrohydrodynamic force generated by surface dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators in air for sinusoidal voltage waveforms. The simulation results confirm that momentum is transferred from the charged particles to the neutral species in the same direction during both positive and negative parts of the cycle. The momentum transfer is due to positive ions during the positive part of the cycle (electrode above the dielectric layer is the anode), and to negative ions during the negative part of the cycle. The relative contribution of the positive and negative parts of the cycle depends on the voltage amplitude and frequency. The model predicts that the contribution of negative ions tends to be dominant at low voltage frequencies and high voltage amplitudes. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3183960]