Analysis of a Pumping Module Using EHD Fluid

Electro Hydro Dynamics (EHD) fluid is a kind of functional fluid. The fluid has the property that a fluid jet flow is generated between two electrodes when a high voltage is applied. DBDN (Di n-butyl dodecandioate) is a kind of EHD fluid and a dielectric organic liquid. The main purpose of this study is to develop a lightweight and compact fluid actuator which makes use of such properties of EHD fluid. We think that it is useful to apply EHD actuators to a micro actuating system as a lightweight actuator. In our previous study, we tested two kinds of pumping module; a direct type and a suction type. By investigating the relation between the generated pressure and applied voltage using these modules, we confirmed that suction type pumping module is superior to a direct type module. In this paper we describe the analysis of electric field by changing geometric parameters of the pumping module in order to improve the performance of output pressure of the module. Further, we investigated the relation between electric field and output pressure of the module.