Boundary layer control by a one atmosphere uniform glow discharge plasma layer

Summary form only given, as follows. At the University of Tennessee´s Plasma Science Laboratory, we have recently developed, with AFOSR support, a new type of uniform glow discharge plasma which is capable of operating at one atmosphere in air and other gases. This plasma is neither a corona discharge nor a filamentary (ozonizer) discharge, the more familiar plasma discharges also capable of operating at one atmosphere. The physical processes which make this discharge possible, based on an RF ion capping mechanism, will be described theoretically, and the RF frequency, electric field, and electrode separation required to maintain this discharge will be derived from first principles. Characteristic operating and plasma parameters in air at one atmosphere are: RF frequency, 1-6 kHz, RMS electric field/spl ap/9 kV/cm; maximum RMS voltage/spl ap/4 kV; plasma number density/spl ap/10/sup 10/ electrons/cm/sup 3/; and input power density 10-200 milliwatts/cm/sup 3/. The maximum volume of uniform plasma generated to date has been 2.8 liters between parallel plates. More recently, the parallel plate geometry described above has been geometrically transformed and made to operate on a planar surface, producing a steady-slate plasma layer up to several millimeters thick. The electric field in this surface plasma layer can provide a body force per unit area of up to perhaps several thousand pascals. Some speculative applications to boundary layer control, turbulence suppression, drag reduction and noise reduction will be put forward.