High ac voltage power supply hooked up to a flexible DBD.

Author: Ethan Graef | Majors: Mechanical Engineering & German | Semester: Fall 2022

Electric transportation is the future of human society, but why do we not have many electric aircraft yet? When we’re talking about electric aircraft development, a typical idea that comes to mind is to use a battery instead of a fossil fuel engine. However, using a big heavy battery to meet the power demands of an aircraft is not ideal for a weight-sensitive system. They lack the efficiency needed to power a plane, and they heat up quickly, and if untreated, these high temperatures can lead to battery corrosion and loss of battery life. Another proposed solution to electric aircraft is the concept of ionic wind propulsion. Ionic wind propulsion is a propulsion system powered by the movement of ions which requires no moving parts. While ionic wind propulsion is also limited by battery efficiency, it’s an appealing concept that would help reduce noise pollution in aircraft, and in recent studies, ionic wind propulsion has yielded some promising results.

I’ve always been interested in aircraft design. I grew up hearing stories of the advanced aeronautical design of the Spitfire, P-51 Mustang, and Zero aircraft that dominated WWII. As a Freshman, I met Dr. Huang while participating in an RC-airplane senior design team called Design Build Fly. The team captain that year, Mike Fredricks, was researching ionic wind propulsion with Dr. Huang, and I found it interesting, so I picked up where he left off.

During the Fall of 2022, as a Junior Mechanical Engineering and German major, I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Adam Huang of the Mechanical Engineering Department on my research topic on ionic wind propulsion. This semester, we focused on developing a power supply to generate plasma in our flexible dielectric barrier discharge devices (DBDs). Our next steps include testing the thrust outputs of different flexible DBD geometries coupled with various fixed neodymium magnets and choosing an optimal configuration for an ionic wind-powered aircraft.

This semester I learned numerous things about my research and myself. For one, a solid understanding of circuits is necessary. As a Junior Mechanical Engineer, I only have been taught basic circuitry concepts. This lack of prior knowledge was a challenge because depending on the type of research paper, the authors may not go into depth on their experimental setup, so you must have the prior knowledge to interpret how their circuit should work. When I had trouble understanding a circuit, I would go to Dr. Huang for help, and he would get out a whiteboard and break it down for me. I also learned that if your research mentor makes components for your experimental setup, you must thoroughly understand how those components can affect the outcome of your tests. When our flexible DBDs weren’t generating plasma, it was hard to understand which part of our setup was incorrect because I wasn’t sure how Dr. Huang’s circuit worked, so I couldn’t accurately compare his circuit to the paper I was referencing. I assumed that the geometries/materials of my flexible DBDs were incorrect, but after trying many different configurations, I asked Dr. Huang to double-check the paper, and we determined that the circuit setup was wrong. The most important thing I’ve learned about myself this past semester is no amount of time management can help me navigate too many commitments. This past Fall, I was a TA, lead tutor, and vice president of an RSO while taking 17 credit hours, and I wasn’t prepared for how much extra time my research would require. For Spring, I’ve lightened my course load and limited my commitments to where I’m more prepared to give my research the extra time it may need when obstacles arise.

Next Spring, I’ll continue my research under Dr. Huang. Over Winter break, we’re ordering a dc-ac power supply that’ll allow us to correctly produce an alternating voltage to generate plasma over our flexible DBDs. During the Spring semester, we’ll test different configurations of flexible DBDs and fixed neodymium magnets for optimal thrust generation.