Electrostatic fluid accelerator for and method of controlling a fluid flow

摘要

An electrostatic fluid accelerator includes a first number of corona electrodes and a second number of accelerating electrodes spaced apart from and parallel to adjacent ones of the corona electrodes. An electrical power source is connected to supply the corona and accelerating electrodes with an operating voltage to produce a high intensity electric field in an inter-electrode space between the corona electrodes and the accelerating electrodes. The accelerating electrodes may be made of a high electrical resistivity material, each of the electrodes having mutually perpendicular length and height dimension oriented transverse to a desired fluid flow direction and a width dimension oriented parallel to the desired fluid flow direction. A length of the electrodes in a direction transverse to a desired fluid flow direction is greater than a width of the electrodes parallel to the fluid flow direction, and the width of the electrodes is at least ten times a height of the electrodes in a direction transverse to both the desired fluid flow direction and to the length.