Ambipolar diffusion and drift in computational weakly-ionized plasmadynamics

Modeling of ambipolar diffusion and drift taking place within a weakly-ionized fluid can lead to some convergence difficulties when the ion conservation equation and the electric field potential equation are solved consecutively. A novel formulation of the ion flow rate is proposed here that reduces the computing effort to reach convergence by a factor of 10 or more. It is shown that by recasting the ion flow rate in terms of drift and ambipolar diffusion components, the sensitivity to the electric field is reduced hence alleviating the stiffness of the system of equations and permitting significantly faster convergence. What makes the method particularly appealing is that (i) it yields faster convergence without affecting the accuracy of the converged solution and (ii) it is not restricted to specific discretization or relaxation schemes and can hence be readily implemented in existing flow solvers. Because it is developed in general form (i.e. applicable to a multicomponent plasma in the simultaneous presence of electric current and magnetic and electric fields), the method is notably well-suited to simulate ambipolar diffusion within ionized multi-species flow solvers and is recommended for all flowfields as long as the plasma remains weakly-ionized and quasi-neutral.     

Dielectrophoresis flow control in microchannels

The control of flow in microscale is one of the most important problems in microfluidic devices, which in particular, are used as micro heat exchangers. The use of electric field is one of the efficient methods of control of dielectric liquid flow in microscale. The electric field influences liquid flow by the EHD force which affects liquid behaviour in terms of the flow rate and pressure.The EHD force consists of three components: the first is the electrostatic force due to free charges present in the liquid, the next one is the force due to the gradient of permittivity of material, and the third one is caused by the change in the electric field intensity.The EHD force is used also in many commercial devices, for example EHD pumps or dielectrophoretic separators. An own approach to apply the EHD force to control the liquid flow rate is presented in this paper. Authors paid a close attention to the dielectrophoresis effect. Dielectric liquid in a non-uniform electric field tends to drift/migrate towards the region of high electric field intensity. With decreasing the electrode dimensions, the dielectrophoresis force becomes relatively stronger. For the dimensions under 400 μm the dielectrophoresis phenomenon can be used for control and actuation of the liquid flow in microchannels. The originally developed design of such flow controller is presented in this paper. The experimental investigations covered flow rate measurement of 2-propanol in microchannel flow controller with application of AC field. It was showed that the dielectrophoresis phenomenon could effectively control the flow. The results for distilled water are also comparatively discussed in the paper.     

Magnetohydrodynamic Electroosmotic Flow with Patterned Charged Surface and Modulated Wettability in a Parallel Plate Microchannel*

This paper investigates the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) electroosmotic flow (EOF) of Newtonian fluid through a zeta potential modulated parallel plate microchannel with patterned hydrodynamic slippage. The driven mechanism of the flow originates from the Lorentz force generated by the interaction of externally imposed lateral electric field $E_y$ and vertical magnetic field $B_z$ and electric field force produced by an externally applied electric field $E_x$. It is assumed that the wall zeta potential and the slip length are periodic functions of axial coordinate $x$, an analytical solution of the stream function is achieved by utilizing the method of separation of variables and perturbation expansion. The pictures of streamlines are plotted and the vortex configurations produced in flow field due to patterned wall potential and hydrodynamic slippage are discussed. Based on the stream function, the velocity field and volume flow rate are obtained, which are greatly depend on some dimensionless parameters, such as slip length $l_s$, electrokinetic width $\lambda$, the amplitude $\delta$ of the patterned slip length, the amplitude $m$ of the modulated zeta potential and Hartmann number $Ha$. The variations of velocity and volume flow rate with these dimensionless parameters are discussed in details. These theoretical results may provide some guidance effectively operating micropump in practical nanofluidic applications.     

Modelling of ions for seeding technique to electrify the atmosphere

There are number of ways in which weak electrification can affect the microphysics of clouds, with consequences for cloud lifetime, radiative properties, and precipitation efficiency. Kauffman [2011] suggested ions produced by direct current generators will add to and enhance the catalysing effects that cosmic ray ions are now known to produce in among other things, lowering nucleation barriers, stimulating charged particle growth and stability and increasing the scavenging rate in clouds. Thus to electrify the atmosphere ions can be generated artificially in abundance along with large electric field.Ions can be generated by the corona effect using Atmospheric electrifiers (a device used to generate negative ions) which makes use of corona discharge phenomenon to charge the air particles. Exact assessment of electric field and charge density distributions and the flow dynamics inside the electrifiers is essential to understand the particle behaviour inside the electrifiers.In this paper, a novel model of governing equations to evaluate the space charge density, electric field intensity and velocity of ionized airflow is suggested as a function of applied voltage. The Poisson and charge conservation equations are derived and hence can be used to estimate the electric field and charge density distributions. Navier stokes equation can be used to get the velocity of ionized airflow because of electric force on the air. Simulation is carried out to validate the proposed model and verify that velocity is function of input voltage and is proportional to it.     

非对称电极表面微观形貌对交流电渗流速的影响

经典交流电渗理论是利用电场进行非机械式微流体驱动的基础.传统理论交流电渗理论以双电层理论为基础,通过耦合电场方程以及流场方程得到微电极表面交流电渗流速表达式,通常与实验流速相差较大. 以电极表面微观形貌对交流电渗流速的影响为研究目标,定义微电极表面粗糙度为微观形貌特征参数,建立了等效双电层模型,并对传统交流电渗流速公式进行了修正.理论并仿真分析了表面粗糙度对于交流电渗流速的影响,利用非对称电极对交流电渗微流体驱动进行了实验研究,并进行对比分析.结果表明,理论分析与实验结果具有较好的一致性. 关键词： 交流电渗 电极表面粗糙度 等效双电层     

运行时间对油水真空分离的影响

为获取运行时间对油水分离动态特性的影响,考虑油水汽三相流、水滴蒸发相变等因素,建立滤油机的油水分离流场的数学物理模型及水滴运动蒸发的相变方程;分析运行时间对油水分离过程中油水汽三相体积分数分布以及轴向脱水率的影响,表明不同运行时间油水汽三相流的动态特性,运行时间显著影响油水分离的脱水效率,为研究滤油机的油水分离机理奠定基础.     

基于流体动力学模型的2维砷化镓金属半导体场效应管数值模拟

 介绍了用于描述工作在高频强电场条件下的亚微米半导体器件的流体动力学模型,并讨论了为求解流体动力学模型所采用的算子分裂方法和有限体积法。使用流体动力学模型,对亚微米GaAs金属半导体场效应管器件进行了2维数值模拟,得到了该器件的I-V曲线、电子密度分布和电子温度分布。数值模拟结果表明,器件栅极电压越负,肖特基结的耗尽层越厚,源漏电流越小;在耗尽层内电场最强处,电子温度达到4 000 K;在强电场下,电子温度将严重偏离晶格温度,形成所谓热电子。     

Electroconvection between coaxial cylinders of arbitrary ratio subjected to strong unipolar injection

This study deals with the electroconvection phenomenon that takes place in a dielectric liquid layer placed between two annular electrodes and subjected to the action of an electric field.The full set of governing equations describing the combined Electro-Hydro-Dynamic (EHD) flow is directly solved with the finite volume method.The development of electroconvective motion is investigated in details in the case of strong injection when the emitter electrode is the inner cylinder.We first examine the stability of such flow. As in the plane–plane configuration we have highlighted the existence of a linear and non-linear critical electric Rayleigh numbers giving rise to a hysteresis loop. The flow structure under the effect of the electric field is analyzed and the distribution of electric charge density is presented. In particular we investigate the effect of various parameters involved in this configuration, such as the radius ratio, injection strength and electric Rayleigh number.A multicellular convective pattern is particularly observed and it is shown that the number of cells is increased when the annular gap is narrower. Finally a significant increase of the rotational speed of the vortex with the electric Rayleigh number is recorded.     

3-D numerical analysis of EHD turbulent flow and mono-disperse charged particle transport and collection in a wire-plate ESP

The present study attempts to develop a detailed numerical approach and a simulation procedure to predict the motion of gas, ions and particles inside a simple parallel plate channel containing a single corona wire. A hybrid Finite Element (FEM)-Flux Corrected Transport (FCT)-Finite Volume (FVM) method is used: the FEM–FCT numerical algorithm is applied for modeling the steady-state corona discharge, while the turbulent gas flow and the particle motion under electrostatic forces are modeled using the commercial CFD code FLUENT. Calculations for the gas flow are carried out by solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations and turbulence is modeled using the k–? turbulence model. An additional source term is added to the gas flow equation to include the effect of the electric field, obtained by solving a coupled system of the electric field and charge transport equations using User-Defined Functions (UDFs). The particle phase is simulated based on the Lagrangian approach, where a large number of particles is traced with their motion affected by the gas flow and electrostatic forces using the Discrete Phase Model (DPM) in FLUENT. The developed model is useful to gain insight into the particle collection phenomena that take place inside an ESP.     

Activation energy process in hybrid CNTs and induced magnetic slip flow with heat source/sink

Effect of induced magnetic field is critical as a result of much controlled and focused on liquid flow is wanted in numerous modern and clinical procedures for example electromagnetic casting, drug delivery and cooling of nuclear reactors. Hence this investigation explains the behaviour of hybrid carbon nanotubes (CNTs) flow through slipped surface with induced magnetic field. Accumulation of SWCNTs (single wall) and MWCNTs (multi wall) nanomaterial with water base liquid is considered. Thermal performance is analyzed with regular heat source/sink effect. Chemical reaction and activation energy impacts are incorporated in mass equation. Solution of the similarity equations are obtained by adopting RKF45 method. Influence of flow variables are illustrated through graphs and computational values of drag force, Nusselt number and Sherwood number are presented in tables. It is noted that activation energy enhance the concentration field whereas opposite behaviour for reaction rate. Also induce magnetic field boosted with the larger values of magnetic Prandtl number. Furthermore it is observed that hybrid CNTs nanomaterial having higher rate of heating/cooling compare to singular CNTs nanomaterial.     

Hydrodynamic analogies between the equations of classical hydrodynamics and electrodynamics in electrochemistry

It is shown that the use of equations of hydrodynamics of an incompressible and compressible fluid gives similar results for a number of experimental data from the field of classical electrodynamics used in electrochemistry. The analogue of electric current in wires is a stream that creates around itself a flow of a fluid. The analogue of electric field is the acceleration of a flow, whereas the analogue of magnetic induction is the frequency of a rotational motion of the fluid. Ampere’s law in hydrodynamics describes the interaction of flows with real bodies in terms of the Zhukovsky equation. The power laws in the fluid are similar, with some distinctions, to Maxwell equations. The expansion of the equations of conservation of momentum and mass in a series in perturbations leads to wave equations also similar to the Maxwell equations for the propagation of electromagnetic waves.     

FDTD结合DFT分析宽频高功率微波大气传播

联立麦克斯韦方程与电子流体方程,用时域有限差分法(FDTD)模拟高斯型和阻尼正弦型等宽频高功率微波(HPM)的大气传播.在每个时间网格上,根据窄带脉冲的电子速度,通过离散傅立叶变换(DFT)方法求解出宽频脉冲的等效电场,将等效电场和压强代入电离参数公式,使电离参数随空间网格不断更新,提高计算准确性.结果表明,宽频HPM脉冲幅值、脉宽以及海拔高度等参数对大气击穿有明显的影响;大气击穿导致尾蚀效应;随着传播距离的增加,宽频HPM脉冲的尾部衰减加剧,脉宽缩短,引起宽频脉冲的频谱出现展宽、分裂及中心频率移动等现象.     

Column buckling of magnetically affected stocky nanowires carrying electric current

Axial load-bearing capacity of current carrying nanowires (CCNWs) acted upon by a longitudinal magnetic field is of high interest. By adopting Gurtin–Murdoch surface elasticity theory, the governing equations of the nanostructure are constructed based on the Timoshenko and higher-order beam models. To solve these equations for critical compressive load, a meshfree approach is exploited and the weak formulations for the proposed models are obtained. The predicted buckling loads are compared with those of assume mode method and a remarkable confirmation is reported. The role of influential factors on buckling load of the nanostructure is carefully addressed and discussed. The obtained results reveal that the surface energy effect becomes important in buckling behavior of slender CCNWs, particularly for high electric currents and magnetic field strengths. For higher electric currents, relative discrepancies between the results of Timoshenko and higher-order beam models increase with a higher rate as the slenderness ratio magnifies.     

Novel low voltage EHD spray nozzle for atomization of water in the cone jet mode

Due to the high surface tension and high conductivity, water is unsuitable for electrohydrodynamic (EHD) atomization using a DC electric field in air. The high local electric field, that is required to atomize water, is likely to generate corona discharge and consequently destabilize the atomization process. This study describes a novel low voltage EHD spray nozzle that can be used to atomize water and weak saline solutions in the stable cone jet mode. The properties of the atomization have been investigated together with the generated droplet size distribution. The nozzle operates at very low flow rates (0.5–4.0 μl/min). Due to the high dielectric constant of water and the low flow rate, the atomization takes place outside the applicability range of the scaling laws. The experimental results show that the droplet size is approximately constant when the flow rate is increased from 0.5 to 4.0 μl/min. The atomization of water was numerically simulated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The simulation results agree reasonably well with the experimental results with respect to the liquid cone shape and droplet size.     

A numerical model of streamlines in coplanar electrodes induced by non-uniform electric field

A new model for investigating the non-uniform electric field and potential distribution of fluid flow and streamlines induced by non-uniform electric field with the induced charge in the electrical double layer on the electrode surfaces is presented. Accurate computation of the non-uniform electric field is a pre-requisite for observing fluid flow and streamlines. The electric field distribution is obtained from Laplace's and Neumann's equations. Finite Element Methods is adopted for this work. The simulation results has been compared with available experimental observations of the fluid flow profile obtained by superimposing images of particle movement in a plane normal to the electrode surface. A good agreement is found between the numerical and experimental streamlines.     

外电场下应变量子阱中电子与空穴的本征态

考虑自发与压电极化引起的内建电场,自由电子-空穴气屏蔽效应和外加电场,基于常微分数值计算,自洽求解电子与空穴的薛定谔方程和泊松方程以获得基态能级。以典型的GaN/A lxGa1-xN纤锌矿氮化物应变量子阱为例,通过数值求解,得到电子与空穴的本征基态能和相应本征波函数。计算结果表明:沿量子阱生长方向所施加的外加电场将抵消阱中内建电场的作用,阱结构的弯曲程度略显平缓,使电子(空穴)本征波函数逆(顺)着外电场方向移动,且均向阱中心移动,波峰峰值增加,隧穿几率减小;在固定外电场情况下,电子与空穴基态能级随阱宽的增加而减小,随掺杂组分的增加而增加,表明外加电场对内建电场有所削弱以及量子限制作用对电子(空穴)基态能有显著的影响。     

Flow and Temperature Fields in the Fire-Ball of an Inductively Coupled Plasma

A mathematical model is presented for the calculation of the two dimensional flow and temperature fields in an inductively coupled plasma. The model is based on the solution of the correcponding momentum, continuity and energy equations simultaneously with the one dimensional magnetic and electric field equations. Results were obtained for a plasma torch, 1.4 cm. radius, and 18.2 cm. long with a four turn induction coil, 2.4 cm. radius and 3 cm. The oscillator frequency was 3 MHz. Calculations were made for argon under atmospheric pressure at a power level of 3.77 KW with different plasma gas flow rate over the range of 5 to 25 gm/min. The results clearly demonstrate the existence of the magnetic pumping effect which is responsible for the formation of two recirculation eddies, one at each end of the coil. As the plasma gas flow rate is increased, the downstream eddy is swept away leaving only one recirculation eddy on the upstream side of the fire-ball. This eddy produces a back flow of the order of 20 m/s. Increasing the plasma gas flow rate is also observed to cause a substantial reduction of the heat flux to the plasma confining tube.     

Improvement in refractive-index change in LiNbO3：Ce：Cu by applying an external electric field

By jointly solving two-centre material equations with a nonzero external electric field and coupled-wave equations, we have numerically studied the dependence of the non-volatile holographic recording in LiNbO3：Ce：Cu crystals on the external electric field. The dominative photovoltaic effect of the non-volatile holographic recording in doubly doped LiNbO3 crystals is directly verified. And an external electric field that is applied in the positive direction along the c-axis （or a large one in the negative direction of the c-axis） in the recording phase and another one that is applied in the negative direction of the c-axis in the fixing phase are both proved to benefit strong photorefractive performances. Experimental verifications are given with a small electric field applied externally.     

Dependence of space charge field and gain coefficient on the applied electric field in photorefractive materials

Intensity dependent space charge field and gain coefficient in the photorefractive medium due to the two interfering beams have been calculated by solving the material rate equations in presence of externally applied dc electric field. The gain coefficient has been studied with respect to variations in the input intensity, modulation depth, concentration ratio and normalized diffusion field in the absence and presence of the externally applied dc electric field. Space charge field has also been computed by varying the intensity ratio in the presence and absence of the externally applied dc electric field. It has been found that the rate of change of the space charge field with the normalized dc field decreases with the increasing intensity ratio for different values of the normalized diffusion field. It has also been found that the externally applied dc electric field has appreciable effect only when it is larger than the diffusion field.