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

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 ρq. The solution is used to calculate the spatial distribution of body force acting on the fluid as FEHD = ρq∇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.