A review on recent advances and challenges of ionic wind produced by corona discharges with practical applications

Abstract

Ionic wind, an induced phenomenon during corona discharge, possessing the features of silent operation and no moving parts, has a wide range of applications. Ionic wind generation is accompanied by complex physical processes, involving gas ionization, ion recombination, flow, and various chemical reactions, as well as mutual couplings between some of them. Therefore, understanding the corona discharge process and ionic wind generation is crucial for researchers and engineers to better utilize this phenomenon in practical applications. In this review, the principles of corona discharge and its induced ionic wind are presented. Subsequently, ionic wind generators (IWGs) are discussed according to their applications, and the corresponding advances based on experimental studies and numerical simulations are also reviewed. Moreover, the challenges of transitioning the ionic wind technology from laboratory studies to practical applications are discussed. These challenges include the excessively high onset voltage of the corona, ozone emission, and influence of environmental conditions. Furthermore, the mechanisms of these barriers and several effective approaches for mitigating them are provided. Finally, some future research prospects and the conclusions are presented.

Surface dielectric barrier discharge (sDBD) for flow control in plasma conversion

“…One might argue, however, that such a pattern might also be induced by simply heating effects of the plasma [29][30][31]. This is investigated by comparing the flow pattern at a boundary temperature of the electrode of room temperature of 293 K and at 340 K in the simulations showing no distinct impact on the flow pattern (not shown).…”

Contactless Interfacial Thin‐Film Breaking Caused Splash‐Like Demulsification of Floating Micron Emulsions via Ionic Wind

“…[23][24][25][26][27][28] As a specific approach to providing the action of charging and electric field, corona discharge utilizes high voltage to induce air ionization to generate ions and electrons, while electrons are accelerated by the electric field to collide with neutral molecules to generate new ions. [29] Positive and negative ions are accelerated under the electric field, resulting in a divergent ionic wind. [30] The ionic wind and high voltage can induce charging, which can be used as electrostatic repulsion to drive the movement of droplets on the hydrophobic surface.…”

Fog Droplet Collection by Corona Discharge in a Needle–Cylinder Electrostatic Precipitator with a Water Cooling System

“…Ionic wind, namely the secondary flow induced by an electric field, is a physical phenomenon caused by the collision between charged particles and gas molecules produced by corona discharge under a nonuniform electric field. Ionic wind generated by corona discharge has been intensively applied for heat transfer enhancement for many years [13,[16][17][18][19][20][21], for it can disturb the boundary layer on the airside of the heat exchanger [22,23]. The principle of electrostatically enhanced fog collection is similar to that of the electrostatic precipitator (ESP): by applying an external electric field to ionize the gas, the fog droplets are charged, and these charged droplets are captured on the collection plate under the combined action of the electric field force and drag force of the airflow [22].…”