Development of a miniature ionic wind blower for active cooling in different scale: Embedded electrode and modularized design

Abstract

This paper presents a miniature ionic wind blower for active cooling by embedding the needle electrode into heat dissipation surface. Experiments with applied voltage ranging from 8 kV to 12 kV and with heating source temperature of the surface for 40 °C, 45 °C, and 50 °C are conducted. The observation of the ionic wind flow by using the PIV instrument shows a jet flow pattern that leaving the surface, which help to form a convective flow in the region near to the surface. This effect gives a maximum of 50 % improvement for average heat transfer coefficient of the surface by comparing to the condition of natural convection. Compared with the estimation of a semi-empirical correlation, the measured mass flow rate of the ionic wind blower becomes larger during the applied voltage is larger than 9 kV. This attributes to the air temperature variation that affected by the mass flow rate during the heat transfer process. In other words, the increased mass flow rate leads to a temperature drop of the airflow, which provides more molecules per unit of volume for a better condition of the corona discharge process. This phenomenon indicates a coupling effect between the air temperature and the corona discharge process. The experimental results of this study also provide a flexible way for modularized design of the miniature ionic wind blower.