Hou Miaosen, Zhang Jifan, Quan Ronghui
Systems Engineering Department, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106, China.
Sci Rep. 2025 May 20;15(1):17471. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-02775-5.
Recently, the application of ionic wind in atmospheric propulsion has gained significant attention, but existing devices face challenges in achieving sufficient thrust for practical applications. This study proposes a novel electrode structure combining a serrated single-ring emitter and multi-ring collector, which offers two key advantages: (1) The 1-2 times thrust increase is achieved through enhanced ion generation, improved ion drift efficiency, enabled by the sawtooth emitter and multi-ring collector design, (2) a compact, lightweight (17 g) design with good structural stability. We compared three electrode structures under varying conditions (voltage: 20-40 kV, electrode gaps: 60-120 mm, ring diameters: 60-100 mm). The sawtooth multi-ring structure achieved a maximum thrust of 164 mN/m under 40 kV and a 60 mm gap. Furthermore, through further optimization of the structural parameters of the sawtooth multi-ring, the thrust density achieved a 28.2% enhancement under equivalent operational conditions. This result highlight the potential of ionic wind propulsion for low-altitude flight, with further optimization promising greater efficiency.
近年来，离子风在大气推进中的应用受到了广泛关注，但现有装置在实现足以满足实际应用的推力方面面临挑战。本研究提出了一种新型电极结构，该结构将锯齿状单环发射器和多环收集器相结合，具有两个关键优势：（1）通过锯齿状发射器和多环收集器设计，增强了离子生成，提高了离子漂移效率，从而使推力提高了1至2倍；（2）设计紧凑、重量轻（17克）且结构稳定性良好。我们在不同条件下（电压：20 - 40 kV，电极间隙：60 - 120 mm，环直径：60 - 100 mm）比较了三种电极结构。锯齿状多环结构在40 kV和60 mm间隙下实现了164 mN/m的最大推力。此外，通过进一步优化锯齿状多环的结构参数，在等效运行条件下，推力密度提高了28.2%。这一结果凸显了离子风推进在低空飞行中的潜力，进一步优化有望实现更高的效率。
