Optimization of wire-rod electrostatic fluid accelerators

Due to the current trend of increasing component densities and decreasing form factors for microelectronics, greater heat intensities are generated across smaller surface areas, exceeding the current cooling capabilities of conventional cooling technologies. Air cooling technologies still play an important role in overall thermal management strategy. Among air cooling technologies, electrohydrodynamics (EHD)-based air movers, also known as electrostatic fluid accelerators (EFAs) or ionic wind pumps, have been considered one of the most advanced air cooling devices due to their superior features, such as the elimination of moving parts and high energy efficiency. EFAs use Coulomb forces between charged molecules as the driving force to push bulk air to generate airflow. In contrast to conventional rotary fans, EFAs significantly reduce acoustic noise and increase energy efficiency due to the elimination of moving components. Therefore, further development of EFAs will enable their widespread adoption and effective use of EFAs. This investigation presents guidelines for the optimization of a wire-rod EFA device, in terms of the number of electrodes and the applied voltage at the corona electrodes. These guidelines are carried out by using the statistical method, analysis of variance (ANOVA), to analyze the numerical data. The results indicate that the air velocity at the channel outlet is not proportional to the number of electrodes. Obtaining a maximum air velocity requires a thoughtful multistep optimization procedure, in which several geometrical and material property parameters are considered.