Design, Analysis and Testing of Ionic Wind Propulsion System for an Electric Aircraft

Lederman, Cole; Velasquez, Ariel; Henderson, Colleen; Borovicka, Cailin

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Design, Analysis and Testing of Ionic Wind Propulsion System for an Electric Aircraft

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This project presents the design of a modular ionic wind propulsion experiment rig with COMSOL simulations and a high-voltage DC-to-DC power converter to provide power to the system. The goal of this project is to explore the parameter space to determine if an optimal electrode configuration(s) exists. This could inform the design of a propulsion system used to propel a lightweight aircraft. The experiment rig must be modular to accommodate many different electrode sizes, shapes, materials, and spacings. The power system must provide enough voltage to generate sufficient thrust for eventual sustained flight. The mechanical design of the experiment apparatus was performed using SolidWorks, while the simulation of ionic wind flow was performed using COMSOL. The modeling of the power converter and battery was performed using LTSpice. Thrust was measured using a digital scale with 0.1 g resolution and wind speed was measured using an anemometer with 0.1 m/s resolution. A benchtop power supply was used for initial testing and the custom power converter was integrated later for comparison. A budget of $1000 was proposed and managed by the team. Ionic wind was generated with a thrust density of up to 321.74 mN/m at 25 kV. Ionic wind was successfully simulated in COMSOL with parameters similar to the experiment rig. It was determined that increasing collector diameter, decreasing the collector-emitter gap without arcing, increasing the quantity of collector-emitter pairs, and staggering the electrodes all increase thrust density for ionic wind.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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