Electrostatic Interference Model of EHD Spraying from an Array of Cone Jets in Electrospray Micro-Thruster

Onset voltage plays a crucial role in the design of a spray microthruster. This paper presents an analytical electrostatic model to predict the behavior of onset voltage in an array of emitters. The basic idea of this method is to superimpose the electric potentials obtained from each individual emitter in an array of emitters. The results show that if one emitter operates and the other neighboring emitters are dry, the potential required for cone-jet spraying generally increases as the emitter spacing decreases (due to electrical shielding). However at very close spacing the potential can decrease. If all emitters operate at the same time, the phenomenon that even at very close spacing the onset voltage required for cone-jet spraying increases merely as the emitter spacing decreases.