Numerical study of a nsdbd actuator: Discharge parameters and energy distribution

nSDBD (nanosecond surface dielectric barrier discharges) have a wide range of applications in the domain of aerodynamics. Numerical simulations were conducted to investigate the dynamics of discharge, the spatial and temporal structures of streamers, the production of active species, and energy deposition. A 2D plasma-fluid coupling code was specially designed and validated by previous experiments to study the discharge parameters and fluid responses in SDBD. The calculations agree well with available experiments and provide direct insights into the evolution of streamers and give a physical spatio-temporal description of fast gas heating energy for further high resolution computational fluid dynamics simulations. The calculations were conducted under P=1 bar, T=300 K condition, with an applied voltage of 24kV for both positive and negative polarities. Active species production in the streamer channel was analysed, the energy deposited into fluid was obtained. Results show the difference between distributions of charged species and excited species, the different mechanisms of discharges under positive and negative polarities leading to different distributions of energy release, and thus different fluid response characteristics.