A Finite Volume Study on the Effects of Electro-Hydro-Dynamic Fluid Acceleration on Airflow Around a Cylinder at Low Reynolds Numbers

Applying a high-voltage electric field in a flow (electro-hydrodynamics or EHD) is a highly effective approach to locally accelerate a fluid to a desired speed. In this paper, a finite volume implementation is used to study the fluid flow around a fixed cylinder at a low Reynolds number. Two pairs of wire-plate electrodes are used to generate the electric field for fluid acceleration. Two Reynolds numbers are considered: Re=40, 100. We show that by increasing the Reynolds number, the relative effect of EHD is decreased. Further, we study the change in drag force due to EHD actuation. Finally, we showed that under certain voltage, electrode placement and Reynolds number the EHD fluid acceleration does not increase the total drag on the cylinder and yet leads to an increase in the total streamwise momentum transfer by augmenting the velocity at the top of the boundary layer.