On the possibility of laminar flow control on a swept wing by means of plasma actuators

A theoretical approach to the assessment of the possibility of laminar flow control on an infinite swept wing owing to a volumetric force and heat impact by plasma actuators on the boundary layer flow is presented. The proposed approach includes the numerical modeling of dielectric barrier discharge actuators, calculation of inviscid flow over a given airfoil, calculation of a compressible boundary layer spatially modulated in the spanwise direction, and numerical solution of a linear stability problem for stationary modes of cross-flow-type instability. The modeling of the plasma actuators is performed for one set of geometrical and physical parameters with the aim of estimating the qualitative features of volumetric force and heat input distributions. The inviscid flow and boundary layer calculations are performed for airflow parameters corresponding to typical cruise flight conditions of a civil aircraft. The force impact of actuators necessary to eliminate the laminar/turbulent transition caused by cross-flow-type instability is estimated.