Development of an EHD Micropump to Generate Oscillating Flow at Low Frequencies (Effect of Waveform on the EHD Pumping)

An electrohydrodynamic (EHD) micropump to generate oscillating flow is newly developed and experimentally tested using an arrangement of thin stainless steel wires. A working fluid is accelerated from the charged electrode to the ground electrode by a high electric field. The electric body force responsible for this acceleration is primarily the Coulomb force. In order to increase the electric field at low applied voltage, the electrode gap between the charged and ground electrodes is reduced to 0.2 mm. The size of the present EHD pump is 24 mm × 30 mm × 7.8 mm, in which ten pairs of electrodes are fabricated. In order to generate oscillating flows, the sinusoidal wave voltage and the rectangular wave voltage are applied. The present EHD pump is demonstrated to successfully generate oscillating flows at low frequencies (0.01-5 Hz).