Plasma Actuators for Control of Crossflow Transition

Plots demonstrating the effect of using plasma actuators to control hypersonic transition on a cone at angle of attack.

For cones at angles of attack and many practical flight vehicles, the crossflow instability dominates transition on a significant portion of the surface. Various crossflow mechanisms and structures exist that require further investigation, especially under quiet flow conditions. Plasma actuators have been suggested as an active flow control device to suppress crossflow transition, and this technology has been investigated by our group.