Experimental studies of free conducting wire particle behavior between non-parallel plane electrodes with ac voltages in air

Abstract

When a spherical conducting particle exists in an electrode system where electrical gradient force acts along the electrode surface, the particle tends to move towards the high field region. The possibility of appearance of this phenomenon is experimentally investigated with wire particles, which can easily produce the corona discharge on their ends resulting the action of a reactive force on the particle by a corona wind. The results show that a hovering particle travels deeper into the high electric field regions regardless of the corona discharge. Moreover, it is found that wire particle with corona discharge hovers near the negative electrode under DC voltage in atmospheric air due to different characteristics of corona discharge by the polarity. But under the AC voltage, the particle hovers near the bottom electrode only and invades in the high field region deeper than under the DC voltage.