Numerical Estimation of the Electric Force Induced by a Cylinder-to-Cylinder EHD Device

Abstract

Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) devices are considered a reliable mechanism in flow control applications. The Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique can be suited to obtain the velocity fields of a flow generated by an EHD device. In this work, the estimation of the electric force generated by a symmetrical cylinder-to-cylinder EHD device is done by applying the momentum integration method on a simulated model. This method requires the presence of a velocity field as well as a pressure distribution. The pressure is calculated through its gradient while using the velocity field distribution. In this study, the force is estimated using two different integration methods of the momentum equation: on the surface and in the volume. Each type of integration is applied while using the pressure provided by the simulation results and the one calculated. The calculations are performed on a control volume surrounding the system that generates the flow. The results shown prove the legitimacy of the technique used to estimate the pressure using the velocity field as well as estimating the global force created by the EHD system. Moreover, the influence of size and location of the control volume on the force calculation is analyzed. Finally, the future of this study remains to apply this method on PIV results to estimate the electric force generated during experimental setups of the same geometry and with a similar flow pattern to the one created by the simulated model.