Experimental and numerical modeling of corona discharge generated in an electrostatic precipitator

The present article is devoted to the numerical and experimental study of positive and negative corona discharge in air at atmospheric pressure in a multi-wire-to-planes geometry, which is widely exploited in the design of the electrostatic precipitator (ESP). A detailed experimental procedure was carried out on a scaled-down laboratory prototype developed for the purpose to determine the corona discharge characteristics. Different electrode layouts have been tested to improve the performance of the precipitator. In addition, the corona governing equations are successfully implemented and solved using Comsol Multiphysics. It has been found that the level and polarity of the applied voltage as well as the geometrical parameters of the studied configuration have a very significant influence on the intensity of the corona discharge current.