Effect of Ground Arrangements on Swirling Flow in a Rectangular Duct Subjected to Electrohydrodynamic Effects

This study presents a numerical analysis of electric fields distribution, characteristics of swirling flow and effect of inlet velocity (u₀) from two ground arrangements, i.e., wire-to-wire (WW) and wire-to-plate (WP) in a rectangular duct subjected to electrohydrodynamic. In both arrangements, location of an electrode wire, which is suspended from the upper wall of the duct, is initially located at the centerline of the rectangular duct, and ground is fixed on the bottom wall. In WW, position of electrode is varied in the vertical direction, while in WP, they are varied both in the vertical and horizontal directions. Electrical voltage of 20 kV is applied and inlet velocity in range of 0.3 – 1 m/s is selected. The numerical results show that electric fields distributions from both arrangements are quite different. These results cause the characteristics of swirling flows to appear differently. In both arrangements the maximum electric fields intensity are not different for each identical gap value. When the gap is closer, electric fields increase significantly. When inlet velocity of air is increased, the strength of swirling flow is decreased because inertial force is superior to the electric body force.