Enhancement of thrust force of an atmospheric pressure positive corona discharge by DC superimposed AC high voltage

The ability of corona discharge as an electrohydrodynamic propulsion system has been considered by many physicists and aerospace researchers. The results show that the most important factor in increasing the thrust force and thrust effectiveness is increasing the momentum transmission frequency in other words reduction of ion mobility that leads to a reduction of the average velocity. By configuring the wire-cylinder in atmospheric conditions, in an experimental study, using a new strategy in generating corona discharge, and without changing the system configuration, the thrust force is increased by increased of exciting species and reducing the ion mobility. DC superimposed AC (AC-DC) voltage source was utilized to achieve higher thrust force efficiency. Results show that the thrust force generated by the AC-DC source is increased by 4–2 times, with the applied voltage range of 10–20 kV compared to the DC source, respectively; while the thrust effectiveness has also been increased. A theory is introduced to calculate the thrust force due to ionic wind generation in the corona discharge regime. Accordingly, a relation is obtained for calculating thrust force and ion mobility using the average vertical ionic wind velocity on the side of the grounded electrode to support experimental results.