Experimental Study on Corona Discharge Characteristics and Heat Transfer Enhancement Application at Atmospheric Pressure

The mechanism of the electric field for heat transfer enhancement with needle-to-ring corona discharges is studied by experiment. Results show that discharge is easier to occur when negative voltage is applied and the electrical characteristics still obey Townsend's equation. The time-averaged velocity field results demonstrate that positive corona produces ionic wind more effectively than negative corona. In addition, it is found that ionic wind can dramatically enhance heat transfer. The enhancement effect of positive discharge is more significant than that of negative one.