Itisaverydifficulttasktodevelopamethodofreducingturbulentboundarylayerdrag.However,inrecentyears,plasmaflowcontroltechnologyhasdemonstratedhugepotentialinfrictiondragreduction.Tofurtherinvestigatethisissue,asmoothplatemodelwasdesignedasatestingobjectarrangedwithabidirectionaldielectric-barrier-discharge(DBD)plasmaactuator.Inaddition,measurementofskinfrictiondragwasachievedbyapplyinghotwireanemometrytoobtainthevelocitydistributionoftheturbulentboundarylayer.AmethodofquantifyingthefrictiondrageffectwasadoptedbasedontheSpaldingformulafittedwiththeexperimentdata.Whenplasmaactuationwasconducted,avelocitydefectoccurredatthetwomeasuringpositions,comparedwiththenoplasmacontrolcondition;thismeansthattheDBDplasmaactuationcouldreducethedragsuccessfullyinthedownstreamoftheactuator.Moreover,dragreductioncausedbybackwardactuationwasslightlymoreefficientthanthatcausedbyforwardactuation.Withanincreasingdistancefromplasmaactuation,thedrag-reductioneffectcouldbecomeweaker.Experimentalresultsalsoshowthattheimprovementofdrag-reductionefficiencyusingaDBDplasmaactuatorcanachieveabout8.78%inthelocalregionoftheexperimentalflatmodel.
