A Pump using EHD Fluid

Abstract

One of an electrohydrodynamics (EHD) phenomenon is the induced flow of an EHD fluid in the presence of an electric field. In this paper, we describe a small pump in which the flow is generated by such an EHD phenomenon. In the case of pumps based on cylindrical electrodes, which thus far have been the focus of our research on EHD pumps, the total circumference length of the edge of the holes in the electrode that generates the rotational flow is small, leading to a small overall one-directional flow velocity. To investigate the influence of the total circumference length of the edge of the holes in the electrode, the area of the holes and the electric field intensity on pressure-flow rate characteristics, we produced ten different electrode pumps in which the electrode contains multiple holes. We measured the pressure-flow rate characteristics of our pumps and compared their performances.