The thrust generation by electro-hydrodynamic (EHD) effect has been studied for a wire-cylinder arrangement under high DC voltage. Series of measurements have been conducted in order to determine the relationship between generated thrust and corona discharge current, as well as its dependence on geometrical characteristics of the electrodes, e.g. electrode gap, wire and cylinder radii. The experimental investigation has shown a linear relationship between the generated thrust and the discharge current, while parametric analysis showed that increased electrode gap and emitter radius reduces the thrust. On the other hand, large gaps favor the thrust per unit power ratio.

This paper presents the design, optimization and fabrication of an EHD air pump intended for high-power electronic chip cooling applications. Suitable high-voltage electrode configurations were selected and studied, in terms of the characteristics of the generated electric field, which play an important role in ionic wind flow. For this purpose, dedicated software is used to implement finite element analysis. Critical design parameters, such as the electric field intensity, wind velocity, current flow and power consumption are investigated. Two different laboratory prototypes are fabricated and their performances experimentally assessed. This procedure leads to the fabrication of a final prototype, which is then tested as a replacement of a typical fan for cooling a high power density electronic chip. To assist towards that end, an experimental thermal testing setup is designed and constructed to simulate the size of a personal computer's CPU core of variable power. The parametric study leads to the fabrication of experimental single-stage EHD pumps, the optimal design of which is capable of delivering an air flow of 51 CFM with an operating voltage of 10.5 kV. Finally, the theoretical and experimental results are evaluated and potential applications are proposed.

No abstract

This paper presents a model for the determination of the ionic unipolar corona saturation current in parallel wire-cylinder electrodes in the air, based on the geometrical characteristics of the electric field lines distributing in the space surrounding the electrodes, under high voltage dc application. The distribution of the lengths of the electric field lines connecting the electrodes is determined by finite element analysis. Then the acquired data are treated theoretically in order to calculate the total saturation unipolar corona current limit for the aforementioned electrode arrangement. Experimental investigation has shown that corona current is closely related to the unipolar saturation current limits derived from the proposed model.

No abstract