On the effects of electrohydrodynamic flows and turbulence on aerosol transport and collection in wire-plate electrostatic precipitators

Predicting transport of aerosols or particles in wire-plate electrostatic precipitators is complicated by the influence of EHD flows and turbulent flow field. In this work we use the direct numerical simulation by Soldati and Banerjee (1998) to analyze the effects of the EHD flows and of turbulence on particle transport and collection efficiency. Particles of different size and charge were tracked in two different Row fields corresponding to different potential applied to the wires of the precipitator. Results were compared against simulations in which the electrostatic field acted only on particles. - i.e. no EHD flows. It is apparent that EHD Rows are large advective motions with scale of the wire-to-wall distance and have a strong effect on the local behavior of particles. sweeping them into different regions of the channel. However, it was found that the overall collection efficiency of the precipitator is not significantly affected by the presence of EHD Rows. Even in the vicinity of the wall, EHD flows appear to have negligible influence on particle deposition. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.