Scientists from Korea’s Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have identified the basic principle of electric wind in plasma. This finding will contribute to developing technology in various applications of plasma, including fluid control technology. Electric wind in plasma is a well-known consequence of interactions arising from collisions between charged particles (electrons or ions) and neutral particles. It refers to the flow of neutral gas that occurs when charged particles accelerate and collide with a neutral gas. This is a way to create air movement without mechanical movement, such as fan wings, and it is gaining interest as a next-generation technology to replace existing fans. However, there was no experimental evidence of the cause.

Credit: KAIST

To identify the cause, the team used atmospheric pressure plasma. As a result, the team succeeded in identifying streamer propagation and space charge drift from electrohydrodynamic (EHD) force in a qualitative manner. According to the team, streamer propagation has very little effect on electric wind, but space charge drift that follows streamer propagation and collapse was the main cause of electric wind. The team also identified that electrons, instead of negatively charged ions, were key components of electric wind generation in certain plasmas.

Furthermore, electric wind with the highest speed of 4 m/s was created in a helium jet plasma, which is one fourth the speed of a typhoon. These results indicate that the study could provide basic principles to effectively control the speed of electric wind.

Read more (The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). “The principle of electric wind in plasma.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 2 March 2018.)

Original paper: Park, S., Cvelbar, U., Choe, W. and Moon, S.Y., 2018. The creation of electric wind due to the electrohydrodynamic force. Nature communications, 9(1), pp.1-8.