NUMERICAL MODELING OF WIRE ELECTROHYDRODYNAMIC FLOW IN A WIRE-PLATE ESP

Abstract

Numerical modeling of the flow velocity fields for the near corona wire electrohydrodynamic (EHD) flow was conducted. The steady, two-dimensional momentum equations have been computed for a wire-plate type electrostatic precipitator (ESP). The equations were solved in the conservative finite-difference form on a fine uniform rectilinear grid of sufficient resolution to accurately capture the momentum boundary layers. The numerical procedure for the differential equations was used by SIMPLEST algorithm. The Phoenics (Version 3.5.1) CFD code, coupled with Poisson's electric field, ion transport equations and the momentum equation with electric body force were used for the numerical simulation and the Chen-Kim turbulent model numerical results that an EHD secondary flow was clearly visible in the downstream regions of the corona wire despite the low Reynolds number for the electrode (). Secondary flow vortices caused by the EHD increases with increasing discharge current or EHD number, hence pressure drop of ESP increases.