Enhancement of brownian and turbulent diffusive deposition of charged aerosol particles in the presence of an electric field

Abstract

The effect of an electric field upon diffusive deposition of aerosol particles is investigated. In the experiments, charged and uncharged monodisperse particles of 0.02–0.2 μm are confined in a metal stirred tank inside which an electric field exists. It is found from measurements of the particle concentration decay inside the tank that the deposition rates of charged particles are enhanced as the electric field strength increases. To evaluate the electrostatic enhancement theoretically, the diffusion and transport of particles in an electric field are described, accounting for Brownian and turbulent diffusion and coulombic force acting on the particles. Deposition rates predicted by numerically solving the convective diffusion equation agree with those measured.