ABSTRACT
Flow control opportunities by plasma include shock wave pattern control, aerodynamic breaking, drag reduction, heat mitigation, flow vectorization, flow acceleration and flow deceleration, and magnetohydrodynamic power extraction and breaking. Boundary layer control could be subdivided into laminar-to-turbulent transition control, boundary layer separation control, lift and drag force control, acoustic noise control, and mixing enhancement. Nonequilibrium plasma demonstrates the ability to control ultralean, ultrafast, low-temperature flames and appears to be an extremely promising technology for a wide range of applications, including aviation gas turbine engines, piston engines, ramjets, scramjets, and detonation initiation for pulsed detonation engines. To use nonequilibrium plasma for ignition and combustion in real energetic systems, one must understand the mechanisms of plasma-assisted ignition and combustion. We need to be able to numerically simulate both the discharge phase and combustion processes under various conditions.
