Experimental investigation of filamentary and non-filamentary regimes in a surface dielectric barrier plasma actuator

Asymmetric surface dielectric barrier discharges fed by a high-voltage sinusoidal low-frequency drive are currently proposed as plasma actuators, because they can induce a directed airflow in the gas surrounding the surface. However, it is known that the induced airflow speed can not be increased as much as desired because a saturation is generally observed for sufficient high voltages. In this paper we show that when the voltage amplitude is increased enough the discharge does not appear uniform any more, but a pattern of plasma filaments becomes evident. We have thus studied plasma properties in both filamentary and nonfilamentary regimes, by means of a Rogowski coil for the measurement of the current associated to the discharge. This is interesting in order to understand what happens at high voltages, when the saturation of the induced airflow speed occurs.