Patent ID: 6919698

Claim:
An electrostatic fluid accelerator comprising: a first number of corona electrodes having respective ionizing edges; a second number of accelerating electrodes spaced apart from and having respective edges that are substantially parallel to adjacent ones of said ionizing edges of said corona electrodes, said accelerating electrodes comprising thin fins having a coefficient of drag Cd no greater than 1; and an electrical power source connected to supply said corona and accelerating electrodes with an operating voltage to produce a high intensity electric field in an inter-electrode space between said corona electrodes and said accelerating electrodes, said accelerating electrodes made of a high electrical resistivity material, each of said accelerating electrodes having mutually perpendicular length and height dimension oriented transverse to a desired fluid flow direction and a width dimension oriented parallel to said desired fluid flow direction, a length of said accelerating electrodes in a direction transverse to a desired fluid flow direction being greater than a width of said accelerating electrodes parallel to said fluid flow direction and said width of said accelerating electrodes being at least ten times a height of said accelerating electrodes in a direction transverse to both said desired fluid flow direction and to said length.