Finite Element Solution of the Corona Discharge of Wire-Duct Electrostatic Precipitators at High Temperatures—Numerical Computation and Experimental Verification

Abstract

Global warming is the greatest challenge faced by humankind, and the only way to reduce or totally eliminate its effects is by minimizing CO2 emissions. Electrostatic precipitators are very useful as a means to reduce emissions from heavy industry factories. This paper aims to examine the performance of wire-duct electrostatic precipitators (WDESP) as affected by high-temperature incoming gases with a varying number of discharge wires while increasing their radius. The precipitator performance is expressed in terms of the corona onset voltage on the stressed wires and the corona current–voltage (I–V) characteristic of the precipitators working with incoming gases at high temperatures. The start of the corona onset voltage on the surface of the discharge wires is calculated for the precipitators under high temperatures based on the standard of the self-repeat of avalanches’ electrons developing on the surface of the stressed wires at high temperatures. For this, calculating the electrostatic field in the precipitators with single- and multi-discharge wires due to the stressed wire with the use of the well-known charge simulation method (CSM) with high-temperature incoming gases is important. The modeling of corona I–V characteristics is adopted using the finite element method (FEM) for single- and multi- (3-, 5-, and 7-) discharge wires of WDESP with high-temperature incoming gases. Additionally, the electrostatic field, potential, and space charge of WDESP are calculated by a simultaneous solution of equations of Poisson, current density, and the continuity current density. A WDESP was set up in the Laboratory of High Voltage Engineering of Czech Technical University (CTU) in Prague, the Czech Republic, to measure the corona onset voltage values and corona I–V characteristics for different WDESP configurations at high temperatures with a varying number of discharge wires while increasing their radius. The calculated values of the corona onset voltage based on CSM and the calculated corona I–V characteristics based on FEM agree reasonably with those measured experimentally with high-temperature WDESP.