Electrohydrodynamic Fiber Pump With Dual‐Flow Channels

Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) pumps generate fluid flow without mechanical moving parts, offering silent operation and scalability; they represent promising power sources for fluid‐driven robotic systems. Fiber pumps, a recently developed class of EHD pumps, employ double‐helix electrodes embedded along the inner wall of a tube. However, in conventional fiber pumps, only a portion of the electrode surface is exposed to the working fluid, which limits their output performance. This article proposes an EHD fiber pump with dual‐flow channels that enable fluid flow both inside and outside the electrodes, fully exposing the electrode surface. Pumps with the proposed design are fabricated and characterized. The proposed pump achieves a flow rate of 1327.1 mL/min and a pressure of 3.6 kPa at 10 kV, exhibiting improvements of up to 2.8‐fold in specific flow rate, 1.9‐fold in specific pressure, 5.7‐fold in power density, and 6.3‐fold in efficiency compared with a reference design inspired by traditional fiber pumps. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed design to fluid‐driven systems, the pump is integrated into a soft robotic fish, which achieves swimming at 25.2 mm/s. These results highlight the effectiveness of the dual‐channel configuration and underscore the potential for enhancing the performance of EHD fiber pumps.