Superior Ionic Plasma Thruster Inspired By Nature (BTC Mark 3)

I've mentioned this before, but you need exponential spacing. You are trying to accelerate a 2.8 column of air with another 2.8 stream input. Because you want external entrainment, you might consider an exponential horn housing. Each 2.8 input would force more air into a smaller space, increasing the speed.
Alternatively, each thruster could be exponentially increased in power, to use the same level of input more efficiently. So like cut the first one in half, raise the last one by double. Without external entrainment, you could change the distance between anode and cathode to accelerate the same stream successively but with increased speed each time. The first one would be closest, and the second one twice as separated, but since the air is already moving, the ions would travel much faster covering the doubled distance in the same time.

I really think you need to switch to static thrust measurement as a method of comparing efficiency rather than output velocity alone. For example, you might be seeing the same 2.8 meters per second output on two designs with the same power but one could have way more thrust than the other due to the surface area of the output. You might also have a design with lower velocity that is far more efficient than one with higher. You kinda touched on this with liters of flow but a thrust stand will provide more accurate information.

Grams of static thrust per watt is the gold standard of measured efficiency. You should be making more than 1 gram per watt from what I know about ionic thrusters. 4 grams per watt is the highest I’ve ever heard of from research papers.

Man seeing an american engineering channel use the metric system is a breath of fresh air. Awesome project man, this has huge potential

"my work has paralleled MIT's attempt" is not something many people can say. Congratulations man, good work!

Dude, a second Channel of just you recording the process of you designing and building the prototypes in long form, like an hour or even longer, would be mad and you’d be able to get a video out sooner, less editing needed because it’s a second channel video, no music is really needed, just pure analysis and prototyping. I’d love to see how you do your process and how your brain works.

I often say you can see Adam savages brain work on the outside as he builds things. And I love the rawness of the content.

Okay hear me out. If you're not going to do it, I might.

Consider the following:
- A wing profile is revolved radially, such that you end up with a wing profile that's disk shaped.
- The disk is initially stationary with air surrounding the disk.
- Underneath the disk wing, there's 'zero' radial velocity, indicating high pressure.
- Above the wing, there's non-zero radial velocity of air, indicating low pressure.
- The radial velocity of air above the wing is induced by plasma.
- The electrodes are circular rings placed on top of the disk, where the inner ring has a smaller diameter than the outer ring, such that air flow radially from in to out.
- The disk is made using CNC and is supposed to be extremely lightweight, i.e. EPS foam (non-flammable) density of about 30 kg/m3. Preferable thin-walled, perhaps with ribs if there's low stiffness.
- Downward 'Wingtips' around the disk's edge could be used to properly separate the high and low pressures.
- You could use a wing profile that has a very high Cl, i.e. high lift at low speed, since Cl does not rely on airspeed.
- You could subdivide the disk into 4 parts, where each quarter's potential difference can be manipulated, which could help in allowing you to steer.

The idea is to create a solid velocity difference between top and bottom surfaces, to create a strong lift force, where the bottom velocity is essentially zero (stand still). Relying on Bernoulli's principle we can determine the lift force. For a simple rectangular plate with area 'A' being in air with density rho, the lift force Fl = 1/2 * rho * A * (Vtop^2 - Vbot^2).

I've done quick calculations. Considering your and others previous work, I think it's viable starting at ~45 kV. if we can achieve similar airflow speeds, I think we could create the first actual hovering UFO drone that doesn't rely on moving parts.

Some other notes:
- There should be sufficient airflow, such that a 'boundary' layer is formed between the high and low pressure zones. Such that air doesn't leak towards the low pressure zone
- Use foam that is preferably fire-retardant, since the plasma may ignite the foam. EPS should be suitable, XPS possibly not.
- Preferably use foam or another lightweight material for the electrodes. Paint it with graphite spray and use electroplating to make some seriously lightweight electrodes.
- One conclusion I had from watching your videos, is that the air speed doesn't necessarily increase with multiple stages. But it does help in creating a more uniform flow over a larger volume or area. Using multiple electrode rings may create a very uniform flow field above the disk.

Been thinking about this for quite some time, and I am thinking about doing it as a hobby project, but I think this would fit your Channel a lot better and if it works out, it's a world's first! (not considering Aliens did it before we did, lol.)

I love that part of the design change is you've moved from 'how fast can we push air' to the more important question 'how much air can we push'.

I think you should run a design competition and have viewers submit thruster designs and you build and test them.

This series is my medication. Love it. Thanks for showing us this progress!

May you thrust yourself further into excellence. Well done sir, loving your content and brain

Awesome work!
Here are some improvements i suggest:

- measure grams of thrust per watt instead of airspeed

- focus mainly on achieving max thrust at a certain size

- use a single tube design with no holes in the sides of the design to simplify aerodynamics and testing

Robust design like you did was really smart, hope you continue with the ionic thurster. Would love to see this on rc planes or even table fans in the future

Please drop Better Help as a sponsor man, they sell people's medical info to advertisers :(

your work and rapid-prototyping inspires me so much

Super impressive!😊 Awesome work! 👌
I have been following your progress and you have come a pretty long way towards something that might end up being used in a real life application and surpass the model stage. I think you are on the right track. Can't wait to see your next video.

Just a reality check: at 4m/s and a cross-sectional area of about 100cm2 you're putting about 0.3W of power into the air; for a 70W input. Because energy rises as velocity squared the second stage of your first prototype is actually more efficient than the first. To maximize thrust efficiency you actually want to move a large volume of air slowly rather than a small volume fast, something ionic thrusters might be suited to. However, due to the nature of ionic acceleration much of the energy input is going into rotational/vibrational states of the molecules rather than velocity, so it's unlikely ionic thrusters will ever be efficient enough to compete with, say, a propeller. But still fun stuff, thanks for posting.

Friends don't let friends get sponsored by Betterhelp

Yeah! Can't wait for OpenSauce! See you there!

your insights into this topic have been invaluable, thanks!

thanks for always being so informative and thorough!

As someone in psych, you really gotta dump BetterHelp as a sponsor.

For everyone else on PC, don't forget about sponsorblock.