Effect of process parameters on the EHD airflow

This work deals with the assessment by numerical investigations of the electrohydrodynamic enhancement of heat transfer in a channel. In order to get a better understanding of the phenomena, we developed an original numerical approach. The model handles the couplings between a non-isothermal turbulent flow and corona discharges from multiple wires. The typical configuration consists in a channel where air enters at a given velocity. In the channel, the ionic wind is produced by multiple coronating wires. In this study, the model is used in order to analyse the effect of some process parameters (inter-electrode distance, wire radius, applied voltage) on the flow and on the convective heat transfer enhancement. We firstly confirm that the model operates well and permits selection of the best parameters in a specific configuration. The model reveals that similar flows could be obtained with different combinations between the inter-electrode distance and the applied voltage. In a second stage, the distance between adjacent wires is discussed. Synergetic effects are obtained for close wires; they locally lead to a tenfold increase of the heat transfer enhancement. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.