Numerical Simulation for Electric Field, Flow Field and Particle Concentration Distribution in Wire-plate Electrostatic Precipitator

In order to have a deep insight into the particle transport behaviors in a wire-plate electrostatic precipitator, the open source software OpenFOAM is applied to calculate Maxwell's equations, continuity equation, momentum equation and particle charge/transport equations, and to analyze electric field, flow field and particle concentration distribution in the wire-plate electrostatic precipitator. The numerical results show that the predicted electric potential, air velocity and dust collection efficiency are in good agreement with the experimental data. In the wire-plate electrostatic precipitator, the spatial distributions of the electric potential field and the charge density field are centrosymmetric around the corona wire as the symmetry center. The flow field and the particle concentration field are almost axisymmetric with the connecting line of the corona wires as the symmetry axis. With the increase of distance between two group plates, the dust collection efficiency decreases. And with the increase of distance between to corona wires, the dust collection efficiency first increases and then decrease. If NEHD/Re2<1.31×10-8, the vortices almost disappear, and the primary flow dominates the fluid flow. If NEHD/Re2>3.35×10-6, some big vortices appear in the electrostatic precipitator, and the electric wind dominates the fluid flow. If NEHD/Re2>3.35×10-6 or NEHD/Re2 <3.35×10-8, the dust collection efficiency in the case of large eddy simulation is similar to that in the case of k-ε turbulent model. If 3.35×10-8< NEHD/Re2<3.35×10-6, the dust collection efficiency predicted by large eddy simulation is different from that predicted by k-ε turbulent model. © 2021, High Voltage Engineering Editorial Department of CEPRI. All right reserved.