NUMERICAL STUDY ON AN IONIC WIND PUMP WITH MULTI-WIRE CORONA ELECTRODES FOR CHIP COOLING

Due to its noiselessness, low energy consumption and compact structure, ionic wind has become a hot research field in recent years. In this study, an ionic wind pump with multi-wire corona electrodes is designed. Each wire electrode corresponds to a pair of parallel plate electrodes which are used to collect charged ions. The change of ionic wind velocity caused by different electrodes configurations and its influence on the cooling effect of a heated plate with a constant power were studied by numerical simulation. The result shows that both the air flow velocity and the mass flow rate increase with the increasing plate electrodes length, and there is approximate a 1 °C temperature drop with a 10 mm increase in electrode length when using the ionic wind pump to cool a plate heated by a 1.5 W power. The maximum temperature drop is approximate 110 °C, compared with the natural convection condition.