Ionic Wind Heat Transfer Enhancement in Vertical Rectangular Channels: Experimental Study and Model Validation

This paper presents the results of an experimental study of ionic wind heat transfer enhancement in internal rectangular channels. Ionic wind is a potential technique to enhance natural convection cooling noise-free and without using moving part and thus ensuring a high reliability and a long lifetime. The goal of the present study is twofold: first, the multiphysics numerical model of ionic wind developed in previous work is validated experimentally. Second, the potential of the heat sink concept combining a fin array with an ionic wind generator is demonstrated by building a technology demonstrator. The heat sink presented in this work dissipates 240 W on a baseplate geometry of 200 × 263 mm. It is shown that the baseplate temperature can be reduced from 100 °C under natural convection to 81 °C when the ionic wind generator is turned on.