Study of ionic wind based on dielectric barrier discharge of carbon fiber spiral electrode

Abstract

Based on the idea that a large number of charged particles can be generated by a high-frequency alternating current (AC) dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), and charged particles can be accelerated directionally by a direct current (DC) electric field, a new type of ionic wind formation method is proposed in this paper. To this end, a carbon fiber spiral electrode serves as the generation electrode and a metal rod electrode as the collection electrode, with AC and DC potentials applied respectively to the generation electrode and the collection electrode to form an AC–DC coupled electric field. Under the action of the coupled electric field, a dielectric barrier discharge is formed on the carbon fiber spiral electrode, and the electrons generated by the discharge move from the generation electrode to the collection electrode in the opposite direction of the electric field vectors. During the movement, energy is transferred to the gas molecules by their colliding with neutral gas molecules, thereby forming a directional gas stream movement, i.e. ionic wind. In the research process, it is verified through electric field simulation analysis and discharge experiment that this method can effectively increase the number of charged particles in the discharge process, and the velocity of the ionic wind is nearly doubled. On this basis, the addition of a third electrode forms a distinct discharge region and an electron acceleration region, which further increases its velocity. The experimental result shows that the ionic wind speed reaches up to 2.98 m s−1. Thanks to the ability of the electrode structure to generate an atmospheric pressure DBD plasma and form an ionic wind, we can create a noise-free air purification device without resorting to a fan, with this device having good application prospects in the field of air purification.