Experimental measurement of the spatial temperature field of the plasma actuator and study of its gas–thermal coupling

Plasma research primarily focuses on flow control and thermal characteristics. Compared with flow-control research, research on the thermal characteristics of plasma is less extensive and less in-depth. Understanding the mechanism by which plasma heats air is of great significance for engineering applications, such as anti-icing and deicing. This study developed an experimental setup for multi-point, in situ, real-time measurement of spatial temperature, exploring the characteristics of the spatial temperature field induced by an alternating current surface dielectric barrier discharge (AC-SDBD) driven by millisecond pulses on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics 0012 airfoil. The main findings are as follows: first, increasing the excitation voltage significantly enhances the induced airflow velocity and shortens the onset time of the disturbed airflow, thereby strengthening the induced vortex structure. Therefore, with Up-p = 7 kV and f = 20 kHz, the induced airflow velocity can reach up to 3 m/s in stationary flow conditions. Second, wind tunnel tests conducted to elucidate the anti-icing mechanism revealed that, at a free-stream velocity of 8 m/s, the disturbed-flow-field region induced by the AC-SDBD plasma largely overlaps with the high-temperature region of the spatial temperature field. Third, we propose an efficient airfoil anti-icing mechanism based on the gas–thermal coupling effect of AC-SDBD plasma, which was validated through anti-icing experiments. Overall, this study provides the first quantitative evaluation of the spatial temperature field associated with AC-SDBD plasma and proposes an anti-icing mechanism based on gas–thermal coupling. This study lays a theoretical and experimental foundation for the engineering application of plasma anti-icing technology.