In order to improve the stall margin

experiments were conducted in a transonic axial compressor with dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuators. Power supplies of sinusoidal alternating current (AC) and nanosecond (NS) pulse were chosen to provide excitation. Improvement of the stall margin and efficiency of the compressor at 40% and 65% of its design speed were compared and analyzed. At 40% of design speed

AC and NS can extend the flow range of the compressor

and AC excitation got a stall margin improvement (SMI) of 15.33%. Effects of both actuations were significantly weakened at 65% of the design speed and the effects of NS excitation were better than AC excitation. In terms of efficiency

NS excitation had a smaller impact and even slightly improved the efficiency at 40% of the design speed. Experimental results show that appropriate choice of power supply can help to improve the effects of stall margin improvement and provide reference for the design of DBD plasma actuator in a real compressor.