Study on control of hypersonic aerodynamic force by quasi-DC discharge plasma energy deposition

Abstract This paper reports an active method for aerodynamic force control of a hypersonic spacecraft via shock wave mitigation with plasma energy deposition. The energy deposition was generated by quasi-direct current discharge at two positions in the streamwise direction on a flat plate upstream a compression surface. Wind tunnel experiments of visualizing a Mach 6 flow over a ramp with high-speed schlieren imaging were performed to verify the method's effect on diluting a shock wave. Meanwhile, the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations, with a source term of simulating plasma heating due to discharge, were solved to evaluate the method's control abilities. From the experimental results, low-density plasma layers can be formed by quasi-DC discharge, which were continuously weakening the shock wave induced by the ramp. The numerical results predicted flow topology under control well with the experimental schlieren images, with the corresponding force reduction rate as high as 58%, which mainly depends on the amount of energy injection, instead of arrangement of heating zones in this study.