Collection of inertialess particles on circular cylinders with electrical forces and gravitation

Abstract

Particle trajectories and collection efficiencies are predicted for the collection of fine, inertialess, charged particles on a single circular cylinder collector in a gaseous flow field under the influence of electrical forces and gravitation. The two electrical forces considered are the coulombic-type force with a charged collector combined with the force due to a uniform external electric field directed at an arbitrary angle to the flow. Analytical solutions reveal that the collection efficiency and deposition density of inertialess, charged, point particles under the influence of the forces are the same under many conditions and independent of the Reynolds number for a wide variety of flow velocity profiles, which includes potential, Oseen, and stationary-vortex flows. For cellular flow fields, fiber packing density is shown to have little effect on collection.