Thermal Characterization of Ceramic Composites for Optimized Surface Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Actuators

Ice accretion is a significant drawback in an aircraft’s and wind turbine’s aerodynamic performance in cold climate weather. Plasma actuators are an attractive technology for ice removal; however, dielectric barriers are typically restricted to borosilicate glass and various polymers, such as Teflon® and Kapton®. Nevertheless, new materials capable of withstanding prolonged exposure to charged particles are needed. In this work, Y2O3-ZrO2, MgO-CaZrO3, and MgO-Al2O3 ceramic samples were manufactured and their thermal properties as DBD plasma actuators were measured. As foreseen, the results showed that the higher the power consumed, the higher the temperature surface of the plasma actuators. The Y2O3-ZrO2 dielectric showed the highest power consumption and ceiling temperatures (20.7 W and 155 °C at 10 kVpp, respectively), followed by MgO-CaZrO3 (9.6 W and 62 °C at 10 kVpp, respectively) and by MgO-Al2O3 (5.6 W and 47 °C at 10 kVpp, respectively). It was concluded that MgO-Al2O3 presented stable magnitudes across the entire dielectric area, whilst Y2O3-ZrO2 showed a more concentrated temperature field. Therefore, considering that about 65 to 95% of the total power supplied to the DBD plasma actuator is dissipated as heat, it becomes natural to propose ceramic-based DBD plasma actuators as de-/anti-icing means for aero-dynamic structures.