Effect of travelling wave electric field on fine particles motion on an electrodynamic board

The aim of this paper is to investigate the motion of fine dielectric particles on an electrodynamic board (EDB) with interdigitated electrodes. This work is composed of two parts. In the first part, the trajectories of the particles are studied using an experimental setup. A high speed camera records videos of particles motion above the EDB surface, as a function of different parameters, such as the frequency and the phase of the applied voltage signals. The frequency range extends from 10 to 500 Hz. The size of PMMA particles under investigation ranges between 50 and 100 μm. In the second part of this work, we numerically model and simulate the electric field and the electrostatic forces distribution, using finite element method (FEM) commercial software. The results reveal that the particles motion highly depends on the frequency and that the three-phase configuration is more efficient for surface cleaning applications. Coulomb force is dominant on the electrodes and in the gap. Dielectrophoretic (DEP) force is dominant near the electrodes edges. The travelling wave dielectrophoretic (twDEP) force is relatively weak but they can also have a significant effect.