Control of separated flows with the ionic wind generated by a DC corona discharge

This paper describes the investigation of a DC surface corona discharge established on a rounded edge of a dielectric material. The ionic wind induced by the discharge was measured with the Particle Image Velocimetry system. A physical induced flow model is proposed to interpret the shape of the velocity field. Experiments on a flat plate and a NACA 0015 were performed in a subsonic wind tunnel. They showed that the flow induced by this discharge acted close to the wall and modified the fully detached flow on the airfoil up to Re = 267,000 and 17.5 degrees by a combined effect of the discharge and a Reynolds effect.