Experimental and numerical study on transportation performance of ionic wind generator with distributed auxiliary heat source

Abstract

Ionic wind technology can be used to achieve directional airflow transportation and local heat and mass transfer enhancement, which are suitable in the field of food drying. Ionic wind can be coupled with medium- and low-temperature heat sources to achieve collaborative heat and mass transfer while satisfying the requirements of efficient drying and maintaining food quality. However, the distributed heat source introduces ambient temperature gradients. Notably, different ambient temperature gradients of the generator exert obvious effects on the local molecular number as well as particle energy; this can affect the gas transportation performance of the generator, which has not been clarified thus far. Herein, the gas transportation performance of a wire-mesh ionic wind generator operating at different heat-source temperatures is experimentally and numerically investigated. The experimental results show that ionic wind generators operating at normal atmospheric temperature are more beneficial to obtaining a high mass flow rate and local velocity of ionic wind. Additionally, continuously increasing the heat source temperature can improve the transportation performance of ionic wind generators. In the simulation, an electrohydrodynamic (EHD) force is introduced to indicate ionic wind strength. The simulated EHD force reaches the highest value without a temperature difference between the two electrodes. The variation trend of the simulation results is consistent with that of the experimental results. The simulation results emphasize the combined effects of particle energy and air molecule number on ionic wind strength, which can explain the phenomena observed in the experiments. This study thus provides a theoretical guideline for the design and combined application of ionic wind generators and distributed auxiliary heat sources.