Effect of Blade Electrode Shape on Electrohydrodynamic Jets with Different Dielectric Properties in a Blade-Plane Configuration

The actuator structure of an electroconvective flow is one of the key factors affecting the efficiency of an EHD pump. This paper presents a computational simulation considering the effect of injection and field-enhanced dissociation in a blade-plane geometry simultaneously. Calculations based on the whole set of EHD equations are performed with the help of a finite element method-based software package. The coupling characteristics of flow and charge behavior are investigated in a system of semicircular-tip and needle-tip blade electrodes, and the effect of adjusting the mobility and inter-electrode gap length on the flow rate is demonstrated. The results show that an impinging jet generated from needle-tip blade electrode is superior to that from semicircular-tip blade electrode, and the maximum velocity can reach 0.97 m/s.