Electrohydrodynamic Flow and Its Impact on Particle Trajectories Inside Wet Electrostatic Precipitator: Experimental and Numerical Analysis

Abstract

To analyze the flow pattern inside a typical wire-plate wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) and its impact on particle trajectories, particle image velocimetry, and the finite element method were applied to visualize inner flow pattern. The flow pattern was primarily influenced by inner water flow along with the collector plates and the electrohydrodynamic (EHD) flow. Particle trajectories under various flow patterns were also studied. The results suggest that the EHD flow has a significant influence on the primary flow by creating vortex structures inside the WESP chamber. The water flow causes the inner flow pattern to become more complicated by generating vertical vortices. The particle trajectories were deformed with the inner flow patterns. Therefore, the collection efficiency can be severely hindered under various conditions. In this article, 16 different configurations were studied. The flow patterns of all configurations were given in two-dimensional images. Flow properties, that is, turbulent kinetic energy, turbulent dissipation rate, pressure, velocity magnitude and shear rate, and collection efficiency of each configuration are given in tabled data.