Efficiency of a Wire-Rod Type Electrohydrodynamic Gas Pump Under Negative Corona Operation

Abstract

A wire-rod type electrohydrodynamic (EHD) gas pump was driven by a negative applied voltage with pipes of different inner diameters. An EHD gas flow was generated from a wire electrode to a rod electrode under a negative corona discharge. The flow velocity was proportional to the applied voltage and the square root of the discharge current. Before spark onset, the maximum volumetric flow rate of 43 L/min was achieved with a pipe having an inner diameter 20 mm, and the pump efficiency was higher than that of a conventional dc motor fan. In a narrow channel, the corona discharge became unstable. In addition, the EHD gas flow velocity was smaller because a pressure loss due to the rod electrode became significant, resulting in a lower electromechanical efficiency.

Review on the History, Research, and Applications of Electrohydrodynamics

“…Even though most of the researchers have been investigating the performance of positive corona discharge EHD pumps, a study of the efficiency that a wire-to-cylinder EHD pump would have under negative corona discharge has also been studied [138]. The apparatus had a diameter of 20 mm and reached a maximum air velocity of 1.7 m/s with an emitter voltage of −13 kV, while it displayed higher efficiency than that of a mechanical fan of equivalent diameter.…”

Numerical Analysis and Optimization of Miniature Electrohydrodynamic Air Blowers

“…Experiments showed that the EHD pump was capable of producing a maximum airflow rate of 40 l/min at −16 kV, using a pipe diameter of 20 mm with about 0.35 W input power. Another study was conducted later by Takeuchi and Yasuoka [33] using similar electrode configuration to investigate the EHD pump efficiency under negative corona discharge. Results showed that the EHD pump was more efficient by two times based on flow rate generation compared with a conventional rotary fan of equivalent diameter under the same operating conditions.…”

One-dimensional analysis of a wire-rod type Electrohydrodynamic gas pump

“…This type of gas flow is known as an ionic or electric wind in the past and now called corona induced electrohydrodynamic (EHD) gas flow. EHD gas flow has been investigated in many flow control applications, such as particle flow control in electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) [2], aerodynamic flow control [3], gas pumpings [4]- [9], etc. EHD gas pumps have been developed for capillary (flow channel diameter d f < 1 mm) and narrow (1 < d f < 10 mm) flow channel for thermal management of electronics.…”

“…Corona electrode with sharp edges, such as needle or blade electrodes [4], [5], seems to be undesirable for dc corona discharge since it is easier to transit from streamer to a spark discharge. Hence a wire-non-parallel plate EHD gas pump [6] and a wire-rod type EHD gas pump [7]- [9] use a thin metal wire as a corona electrode to obtain a stable and effective corona discharge, as proven in many commercial ESPs and copy machines. The wire-rod type EHD gas pump achieves This work is supported by a Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (NT) and NSERC of Canada (JSC, NT).…”

“…The wire-rod type EHD gas pump achieves This work is supported by a Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (NT) and NSERC of Canada (JSC, NT). higher pump efficiency than a conventional mechanical fan in a smaller diameter tube (d f < 23 mm) [9], and the effect of wall and electrode arrangement flow resistance is well understood. In this research, the experimental results were analyzed by the cross sectional averaged one-dimensional modified Bernoulli model and EHD pump head loss effect was investigated.…”