The effect of DC voltage polarity on ionic wind in ambient air for cooling purposes

Gas flows can be induced by gas discharges like DC coronas because neutral molecules gain momentum by ion-neutral collisions. This can be used for active cooling and has advantages over mechanical fans. We investigate ionic wind by a DC corona discharge under different conditions with an emphasis on the effects of voltage polarity and the transition between different discharge regimes. We also consider the gas temperature of a DC corona which is important when it is to be used for cooling purposes. Although DC coronas are usually characterized as low temperature plasmas, gas heating can have a significant impact on flow generation, especially at higher operating voltages. In this paper, a 5–20 kV DC voltage of positive and negative polarity is applied to a needle–cylinder electrode. The ionic wind velocity at the exit of the cylinder electrode is measured by hot wire anemometry and the emission spectrum is used to study the gas temperature. It is found that the flow velocity induced by positive coronas is higher than that by negative coronas for voltages above 10–15 kV, which is also demonstrated by a phenomenological EHD force model. Furthermore, a heated column is observed by Schlieren technique for both voltage polarities. An improved self-consistent ionic wind model considering heat transfer is built to study the temperature distribution. The simulation results indicate that the gas flow velocity is lower on the symmetry axis when the temperature gradient is taken into account, something which is usually ignored in ionic wind simulations. (paper)