Operational Envelope of an EAD Thruster Under Varying Pressure and Humidity
Davide USUELLI, Andrea AVALLI, Raffaello TERENZI, Stefano TROVATO, Marco BELAN
Abstract. A wire-to-grid electroaerodynamic (EAD) thruster is experimentally investigated under varying environmental conditions. Experiments are conducted in a low-pressure chamber to assess the influence of ambient pressure p and relative humidity RH on device performance. The key performance metrics considered are corona current i_c, the thrust density T/A, and the thrust-to-power ratio T/P. Experimental results indicate that decreasing pressure negatively affects all performance indicators while reducing the ignition threshold. Additionally, both current consumption and ignition voltage exhibit a parabolic dependence on relative humidity.
Keywords
EAD Thruster, Corona Discharge, Pressure, Humidity, Performance
Published online 7/20/2026, 6 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Davide USUELLI, Andrea AVALLI, Raffaello TERENZI, Stefano TROVATO, Marco BELAN, Operational Envelope of an EAD Thruster Under Varying Pressure and Humidity, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 69, pp 632-637, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904251-112
The article was published as article 112 of the book CEAS – AIDAA Conference 2025
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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