Study of a Battery Driven Electrohydrodynamic Thruster

Abstract: Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) thrusters hold promiseto provide more efficient thrust than propeller driven systems forsmall drones. However, the fact is that there is incomplete analysisin the area and that no work has yet studied the capacities ofbattery driven EHD thrusters. This study shows how a batterysystem from a commercial Arc-Lighter can produce a suitablevoltage for an EHD thruster, with 7.1 kV. Using the batterysystem to drive a single EHD thruster, the EHD thruster couldonly lift 13.3 ppm of the total weight of a battery system andEHD thruster. However, the low value is due to a low-qualitythruster. If the battery system would be used with suitable highqualityEHD thrusters from literature, approximately 5% of thetotal weight could be reached when at least 20% is needed forairplane drones to lift. In conclusion, the battery system is notsufficient for lifting the total weight. Still, in future, with morework on both EHD thruster and a battery system providing ahigher voltage, there might be possible to have small airplanedrones with battery driven EHD thrusters.