Investigation on collision-coalescence of droplets under the synergistic effect of charge and sound waves: orthogonal design optimization

Abstract

As an efficient approach to improve visibility, defogging technology is essential for the operation of ports and airports. This paper proposes a new and hybrid defogging technology, i.e. an electric–acoustic defogging method. Specifically, the droplets are charged by corona discharge, which is beneficial to overcome the hydrodynamic interaction force to improve the droplet collision efficiency. Meanwhile, sound waves (especially acoustic turbulence) promote the relative movement of droplets to increase the collision probability. In this study, the effects of acoustic frequency (f), sound pressure level (SPL), and voltage (V) on the droplet growth ratio were studied by orthogonal design analysis. The results of difference analysis and multi-factor variance analysis show that frequency and SPL are the dominant factors that affect the collision of droplets, and the effect of voltage is relatively weak. And f= 400 Hz, SPL = 132 dB, and V = −7.2 kV are the optimal parameters in our experiment. In addition, we further studied the impact of single factor on droplet growth ratio. The results show that there exists an experimental optimal frequency of 400 Hz. The droplet growth ratio increases with SPL and voltage level. The new technology proposed in this paper can provide a new approach for defogging in open space.