To reduce power consumption and pollutant emissions in the atmosphere due to the increase of aerial traffic jam, tomorrow’s plane must be environnement-friendly. To enhance aerodynamic airfoil performance, worldwide studies have been carried out to study reel time active flow control actuators. For a decade, the interest in using a dielectric barrier discharge for flow control is increasing. Such a discharge is able to create a non thermal plasma which can induce a low velocity airflow, called ionic wind, which interacts with natural flow close to the wall to change its behavior. Experimental studies detailled in this thesis can be divided in two parts. On one hand, plasma actuator caracterization is performed at atmospherical pressure to study the influence of oxygen and nitrogen on the discharge behavior. On the other hand, abilities of the actuator to control a massive flow separation at the leading-edge of an airfoil in a deep post-stall regime are investigated. Results underlines that plasma filaments ignition and ionic wind generation is mainly governed by O2. Besides, the ozone procution rate of the dischage is measured as a function of electrical power. Wind tunnel tests, performed in the PLASMAERO project, underline that separated air flow and its instabilities can be drive by the burst frequency of the high voltage signal. For a deep post-stall regime, a lift enhancement can by obtained by reattaching the air flow or inducing lifting vortexes on the wing upper surface.
