Title: Numerical simulation of air flow in needle-to-cylinder electrohydrodynamic device

Authors: Rafał Gałek; Joanna Wilk

Addresses: Department of Thermodynamics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, Rzeszów University of Technology, 8 Powstanców Warszawy Ave., 35-959 Rzeszów, Poland ' Department of Thermodynamics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, Rzeszów University of Technology, 8 Powstanców Warszawy Ave., 35-959 Rzeszów, Poland

Abstract: The paper presents the methodology and results of numerical simulation of the flow induced by corona discharge obtained with open-source environment Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework released by Idaho National Laboratory. Coupled system of governing partial differential equations is solved for the values of electric potential φ and space charge density ρ_q. The solution is used to calculate the spatial distribution of body force acting on the fluid as F_EHD = ρ_q∇φ. The body force is subsequently introduced as a source term in Navier-Stokes equations solved in MOOSE for the value of fluid velocity. The results are presented as velocity profiles at the outlet of the flow generator and integrated to yield volumetric flow rate and the efficiency of the device. Comparison of the results with data available in literature reference for similar configuration shows satisfactory agreement.

Keywords: electrohydrodynamics; corona discharge; fluid flow; numerical simulation; MOOSE; flow generator; body force; velocity profile; efficiency; open source.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2020.106408

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2020 Vol.20 No.2, pp.84 - 92

Received: 16 Aug 2018
Accepted: 15 May 2019
Published online: 06 Apr 2020 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article