Development and testing of a test bench for the analysis of plasma actuators at high-Reynolds number

Controlling flows at high Reynolds numbers has many important practical applications, for example drag reduction of vehicles. Indeed, minimizing drag is one of the main strategies for reducing fuel consumption and decreasing emissions of polluting agents and greenhouse effect gases, like CO2. The complexity of high Reynolds number flows dynamics poses challenging problems when designing efficient and reliable control strategies. In order to do so, the flow control device itself should be capable of dynamically adapting its response to changing conditions. Among the active flow control devices, plasma actuators are one of the best candidates for this scope, thanks to their unique characteristics. This thesis has the objective of developing and testing a specific test bench for the analysis and study of plasma actuators for active flow control at high Reynolds numbers.