Journal of Electrostatics 95 (2018) 61–70

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Journal of Electrostatics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/elstat

Electrohydrodynamic flows in electrostatic precipitator of five shaped T

collecting electrodes
Heng Shen, Wanxuan Yu, Hongwei Jia, Yanming Kang∗
Department of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The electrohydrodynamic (EHD) flows in wire-plate electrostatic precipitators (ESP) of five shaped collecting
Electrohydrodynamics electrodes are simulated by employing the CFD code FLUENT with the aid of a user defined function (UDF). The
Secondary flow results show that the EHD flow patterns are different in the five configurations. Bending of the collecting plate
Vortex structure can easily lead to the peak of the electric field intensity near the collecting surface. The space charge density near
Zigzag type plate
the W-type collecting surface is more uniform than those of the other four types. The flow induced by ionic wind
C-type plate
in the C-type plate is strongest among the five channels.

1. Introduction
Environmental protection, especially air pollution control, has be-
come a crucial problem of public concern in China, because energy
consumption as well as the emission of environmental pollutants has
grown dramatically with rapid economic development [1–4]. As one of
the effective and reliable particulate control devices, the electrostatic
precipitator (ESP) has been widely used for industrial gas cleaning with
high dust removal efficiency. In the ESP channel, the electrode con-
figuration and arrangement, producing the electrical characteristics and
the features of the electrohydrodynamic (EHD) flow in the channel, are
the most essential and important factors influencing particle collection
efficiency. When corona discharge takes place in the EPS, the fluid flow
interaction occurs between the primary flow and the secondary flow
(sometimes also referred to as corona wind, electric wind, or ionic
wind) caused by the high-speed electrical ions, which leads to a com-
plicated turbulent flow, i.e., the EHD flow, and therefore influences the
dynamic behavior of the charged particles.
Numerous experimental and numerical studies have been carried
out on the electrical characteristics and EHD flow in the ESP over the
past few decades. In fact, it is difficult to exactly measure both the flow
field and the electrical field in the channel, by either direct or indirect
testing, when the ESP is operating [5]. On the one hand, direct mea-
suring techniques using probes, such as hot-wire probes, distort not
only the electric field, but also the gas flow pattern. On the other hand,
most non-intrusive optical techniques, e.g., LDV (Laser Doppler Velo-
cimeter) and PIV (Particle Image Velocimeter), depend on what kind of
tracer particle is used for the test, and the transportation of particles is
not solely influenced by the flow field, but by the electric field also.
Moreover, the space charge distribution in the channel can be changed
by the charged tracer particle. Therefore, numerical analysis has been
widely used to calculate the electric field, EHD flow and particle col-
lection in ESPs since the 1970s. For example, McDonald et al. [6] nu-
merically predicted the electric field by the finite difference method in
the wire-plate ESP. The interaction of the electric wind and the inlet
velocity in wire-plate precipitators was theoretically and experimen-
tally investigated by Yamamoto et al. [7,8], who demonstrated that the
electric wind induced flow was suppressed by the inlet flow. Angnos-
topoulos and Bergeles [9] present the electrical characteristics and flow
features of a single electrode in the wire-plate ESP by the finite volume
method. Kallio and Stock [10,11] analyzed the characteristics of un-
even anisotropic turbulence caused by primary flow and secondary
flow, numerically solved the electric field by a combination of the finite
volume method and the finite difference method, and simulated the
turbulent EHD flow in the wire-plate ESP by the standard k-ε turbulence
model. More details of previous studies on this subject have been re-
viewed by Adamiak [12], Feng [13] and Arif [14] et al.
However, most of the above studies are limited to simple geometry
of flat-plate-type collecting electrodes, only a few studies about EHD
flow in ESP composed of shaped plates have been addressed. For in-
stance, Lami et al. [15] numerically studied the electrical character-
istics of C-type collecting electrodes by using the finite difference
method. Bernstein et al. [16,17] analyzed the influences of the state-of-
art electrode and Wavy electrode on the electrical characteristics and
flow features without considering the effect of space charge on the
electric field. Park et al. [18,19] studied the EHD flow characteristics in

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ymkang@dhu.edu.cn (Y. Kang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elstat.2018.08.002
Received 29 April 2018; Received in revised form 9 August 2018; Accepted 11 August 2018
0304-3886/ © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
H. Shen et al.
a model ESP of simple geometry composed of a single wire with a cavity
by experiments and numerical calculations. Fujishima et al. [20] con-
ducted a simulation to understand the EHD flow in a typical industrial
ESP geometry, i.e. the spiked-type discharge electrode and convex-
concave-type collecting plate. The results show that the concave zone of
collecting electrode is beneficial to particle capture because the flow in
the concave zone is relatively stagnant, and the convex zone does not
influence the primary flow. Neimarlija et al. [21] used the finite volume
method to investigate the characteristics of electric and flow fields in
the C-type plate ESP.
Although previous studies have resulted in better understanding of
the coupling flow in the ESP, few of them could exactly model the EHD
flow phenomena in the channel with different shapes of collecting
plates. It is difficult to comprehensively evaluate the characteristics of
electric field, gas flow and particle capture in real ESP channels based
on existing results.
In the present study, computational fluid dynamic (CFD) techniques
are employed to simulate the flow characteristics in ESP channels with
the influences of ionic wind. Five geometrical configurations of col-
lecting electrodes are considered for the simulations. The finite volume
method is used to solve the governing equations for determining the
electric fields and space charge densities in the channel. The RNG k-ε
model (Renormalization-group k-ε model) of EHD turbulent flow in-
cluding electrical body force due to ion flow was used to evaluate gas
velocity distribution.
2. Geometrical configuration of collecting electrode
The ESP channel consists of two collecting plates (collecting elec-
trodes) through which the dust-laden gas is passed, and a series of
equidistant wires (discharge electrodes) are placed in the middle plane
between the two plates. Five shapes of collecting electrodes, shown in
Fig. 1, are chosen to investigate the flow characteristics in the ESP
channel when secondary flow caused by ionic wind exists.
The main parameters used for the numerical simulations are sum-
marized in Table 1 [16,21–24]. Where Sx is the wire-to-wire distance, Sy
is the wire-to-plate distance, a is the distance of two neighboring col-
lecting rods/tubes (Fig. 1(b)), b is the half-height of the W-type cavity
Fig. 1. Geometrical configurations of the ESP channel with five shaped collecting electrode systems (dimensions in mm).
62
Journal of Electrostatics 95 (2018) 61–70
(or called zigzag type, Fig. 1(c)), c is the height of the C-type cavity
(Fig. 1(d)), d is the edge length of the angle (Fig. 1(e)), r is the radius of
the discharge wire, kion is the ion mobility coefficient, De is the ion
diffusivity coefficient, U0 is the applied electric potential at the dis-
charge electrode, Jt is the average current density on the collecting
electrode, i/l is the specific current.
For the sake of simplicity, cylindrical wire is considered as the
discharge electrode. In much previous work for modeling the EHD flow
in wire-plate ESPs, the geometry of the channel was usually simplified
to a single wire configuration [17–19]. Because a single wire model
might not capture properly the flow and particle collecting behaviors in
a real ESP channel, multi-wire configurations have been taken into
consideration in the past two decades [13]. Therefore, three discharge
electrodes are used to investigate the effect of inlet and outlet on the
flow as well as avoid the distortion of numerical results. The EHD
turbulent flow in the channel is assumed to be fully developed isotropic
turbulence with normal temperature. Due to the symmetry of the
channel, the computational domain is reduced to only the upper half of
the electrostatic precipitator channel between the collecting electrodes
and discharge electrodes, as shown in Fig. 1.
3. Numerical model
3.1. Governing equations
The EHD turbulent flow is governed by the time-averaged con-
tinuity and Navier-Stokes equations including a turbulence model and
the influence of electrostatic force. For the geometrical configurations
of the electrode systems shown in Fig. 1, the flows in the channels can
be treated as two-dimensional, steady-state and incompressible, and the
governing equations take the forms [7–12]:
Conservation of mass
∂uk
=0
∂xk (1)
Conservation of momentum
H. Shen et al.
Table 1
Values of the main parameters of the ESP channel for simulation.
Sx (m) Sy (m) a (m) b (m) c (m) d (m)
0.24 0.125 0.03 0.02 0.04 0.05
Table 2
Terms of the scalar transport equation.
Equation ϕ Fi Γk Sϕ
Electric potential φ 0 1 ρion/ε0
Charge density ρion ρ (kionEk + uk) ρDe 0 transformed into the standard scalar transport equation format of
∂ ⎛ ∂u ∂p
ρui uk − (μ + μt ) i ⎞ = −
⎜ ⎟ + ρion Ei
∂xk ⎝ ∂xk ⎠ ∂xk
Ignoring the effect of the charged particle on the electric field, the
ion charge density and electric field strength are highly non-uniform
and are described by the following equations:
Poisson's equation
∇2 φ = −ρion / ε0
Current continuity equation
∂ ∂2ρion
(ρ (kion Ek + uk )) = De
∂xk ion ∂xk2
where ρ is the mass density of the gas, uk is the gas velocity component
in the xk direction, μ is gas dynamic viscosity, μt is turbulent dynamic
viscosity, p is gas pressure, E is the strength of the electric field, φ is
electric potential, ρion is the ion charge density, ρionEi is the momentum
term, which expresses the ionic wind effect on the gas flow, and ε0 is the
permittivity of free space.
The standard k-ε model [25–27] and the RNG k-ε model
[18,19,28,29] have been widely employed for the simulation of EHD
flow in ESPs. Feng et al. [25] used six turbulence models to simulate the
EHD turbulence flow in the ESP with cavity walls and a single corona
wire, and the results were compared with the experimental data of Park
et al. [18,19]. It was found that for the time-averaged velocity, the RSM
model is the most accurate, and the standard k-ε model has a similar
accuracy level. In addition, the standard k-ε model performs slightly
better than the realizable RNG k-ε model in predicting the time-aver-
aged velocity field. For the turbulent velocity, the realizable RNG k-ε
model provides the best results. On the other hand, Choi et al. [29]
compared various turbulence models from the computational cost and
accuracy. Because the Reynolds number (based on the half width of the
precipitator channel) ranges between 5 × 103 and 2.5 × 104, the wall
boundary layers occupy a significant part of the flow domain. As a
result, the low-Reynolds number effects are important in characterizing
the turbulent flow field, and the RNG k-ε model is considered to be
reasonable in the EHD flow modeling. Moreover, based on the works of
Yakhot et al. [30,31], i.e., compared with the standard k-ε model, the
RNG k-ε model gives remarkable improvements in the treatment of
massive flow separation and anisotropic turbulence, Park et al. [18,19]
compared the simulation results by the RNG k-ε model with the ex-
perimental data, and also showed that the RNG k-ε model is suitable for
simulating the EHD flow in the ESP with various complicated shapes of
collecting electrode.
Therefore, the RNG k-ε model is employed in the present study to
calculate the turbulent flow with the ionic wind and run the commer-
cial CFD code (standard version of ANSYS FLUENT 6.3.26) to complete
the solution. However, equations (3) and (4), as well as the momentum
equation including the electric coupling term are not contained in the
model in the FLUENT code. Consequently, the distribution of ion charge
Journal of Electrostatics 95 (2018) 61–70
r (mm) kion (m2·(V⋅s)−1) De U0 (kV) Jt (A·m2)
2.5 1.8 × 10−4 0.01 60 6 × 10−4
density and electric field intensity are obtained from the numerical
solution of the Poisson's equation and the current continuity equation
by employing a finite volume method in this study. The User Defined
Functions (UDFs) are programmed and used for linking the solution of
the electric field with the FLUENT code, i.e., Eqs. (3) and (4) are
FLUENT, and cast in a general form [32]:
∂ (ρϕ)
+ ∇ (Fi ϕ) = ∇ (Γk ∇ϕ) + Sϕ
(5)
(2) ∂t
where is the scalar of interest, Fi is the convective flux, Γk is diffusion
coefficient, and Sϕ is the source term. These terms are given in detail in
Table 2.
3.2. Grids and boundary conditions
(3)
Due to the symmetry of the channels, a two-dimensional computa-
tional domain was considered for all the five cases and the sketch of the
grid meshes was depicted in Fig. 2. The domain was meshed with tri-
(4) angle elements, using the GAMBIT code, and carefully refined for the
areas near the collecting plates and the discharge wires, from where the
grids then started to become coarser away. The maximum expansion
rate between two consecutive cells was set less than 1.08.
Grid sensitivity analysis has been performed for each case in our
pre-simulations to ensure the accuracy of the numerical results. A set of
pre-simulations were conducted by calculating the same case with
different grid numbers. Quantitative grid convergence was estimated by
using the Grid Convergence Index (GCI) proposed by Roache [33]. The
relevant parameters of the test as well as the testing process can be
described as follows:
1) Define the representative mesh size, h:
1/3
⎛1
N
h=⎜
N
∑ Δsi ⎞⎟
⎝ i=1 ⎠ (6)
where N is the total number of the cells in the computational domain,
and si is the area of the ith cell. It is suggested that the grid refinement
factor, i.e., rc = hcourse/hfine, should be greater than 1.3 [34]. To check
the grid convergence in CFD, three sets of grid (N1, N2, N3, where the
subscript 1, 2, and 3 stands for the fine, medium and coarse mesh, re-
spectively) were tested for simulating the electrohydrodynamic flow.
Thus, we have h1 < h2 < h3, h2/h1 = h3/h2 = 1.3.
2) Run the simulations to calculate the values of key variables (ϕ ) for
meshing conditions. The velocity of electrohydrodynamic flow was
employed as one of the indicators in the present study.
3) Calculate the relative error measure (ε21
i ) of the variables [34]:
ϕi,1 − ϕi,2
εi21 = × 100%
ϕi,2 (7)
where ϕi.1 and ϕi,2 , separately, represents the variable value obtained at
point i with the total number of cells N1 and N2.
4) Figure out the root-mean-square of the relative error (ε21
rms) of the
sample points [33,34]:
63
H. Shen et al. Journal of Electrostatics 95 (2018) 61–70

Fig. 2. Computational mesh of the Flat-plate type (a) and W-type (b) electrostatic precipitator channel.

n 21 2 1/2
⎛ ∑ (εi ) ⎞
21
εrms = ⎜ i=1 ⎟
Table 4
⎝ n ⎠ (8) Summary of boundary conditions.

where n is the number of the sample points. These points are located Equation Inlet Outlet Collecting Discharge
electrode electrode
along three vertical lines within the channel, namely, x = -Sx, x = 0
and x = Sx. Gas velocity Velocity-inlet Pressure-outlet Wall Wall
Electric ∂φ/∂n = 0 ∂φ/∂n = 0 70 kV 0 kV
5) Calculate the grid convergence index [33,34]: potential
Charge ∂ρion/∂n = 0 ∂ρion/∂n = 0 Peek's ∂ρion/∂n = 0
3ε 21 density formula
GCI = m rms
rc − 1 (9)

where m is the order of the discretization method. In the current work,
all transport equations were discretized by second-order upwind
schemes, i.e., m = 2. The values of ε32
rms and GCI
32
were calculated in the
same way and the testing results can be summarized in Table 3.
In this study, the εrms values less than 1% was used as the criterion
for grid convergence. The equivalent GCI value is 4.35% when r = 1.3.
It can be observed from Table 3 that both the GCI21 and ε21 rms are lower
than the criteria values. It is suggested that the variables are not in-
fluenced by the grid density and consequently, the grid convergence has
been achieved. Therefore, the final mesh numbers of the five config-
urations for all simulations are set at 170,400, 173,860, 172,970,
176,380 and 171,450, respectively.
The boundary conditions of the ESP channel used for the simula-
tions are summarized in Table 4. Except the surfaces of the electrodes,
the inlet and outlet sections, the remaining boundary surfaces are
treated as symmetry planes, also including gaps between collecting
electrodes. The inlet of the channel is set as velocity inlet, the outlet is
set as pressure outlet, and the wall boundary conditions are set to solid-
wall conditions at the discharge electrodes and the collecting elec-
trodes.
Despite the fundamental importance of corona discharge's model-
ling, the ionization processes tend to be very complex and difficult to be

Table 3
Grid convergence index (GCI) calculations.
collecting electrodes N1 N2 N3 ε21
rms (%) GCI21 (%) ε32
rms (%) GCI32 (%)

Flat-plate type 132070 170400 221820 0.21 0.91 0.48 2.09

Rod-curtain type 133900 173860 226000 0.81 3.52 1.1 4.78
W-type 132000 172970 224800 0.65 2.83 0.9 3.91
C-type 135600 176380 229200 0.35 1.52 0.52 2.26
Opzel-type 132080 171450 223800 0.75 3.26 0.61 2.65

64
H. Shen et al.
theoretically predicted, even if simulating ionized electric field by nu-
merical techniques. However, the electric field at the surface of all wire
electrodes presented the same strength satisfying Peek's formula
[29,35]. Ion charge density at the wire was adjusted by the iterative
process until the calculated electric field became consistent with the
value calculated from Peek's formula [29,35].
The solution of the electric field and space charge density is the
prerequisite for the coupling calculation of the EHD flow in the ESP
channel. The empirical formulas and the convergence criterion used in
the numerical calculation can be described as follows [36,37]:
SX jt
ρw = × 10−5
πkion rf0 (30δ + 0.9(δ / r )1/2) (10)
Epeek = 3.1 × 106mδ (1 + 0.03/ δr ) (11)
(E (n) − Epeek )/ Epeek < 1 × 10−5
(12)
where ρw is the space charge density of discharge electrode surface. E(n)
is the average value of the electric field intensity of n-th iteration on the
discharge electrode, n indicates the iteration number, EPeek is the
electric field intensity of Peek's semi-empirical formula [37], f0 is the
surface roughness coefficient of the discharge electrodes, having the
range 0.7–1.0, and δ is the relative density of gas with respect to the
normal conditions, with this value set to 1 at 0.1 MPa.
The space charge density of the discharge surface ρw is calculated by
the Kaptzov's approximation [36], i.e., Eq. (10), and it is taken as the
initial value of the discharge electrode boundary condition. After many
trials of the present study, it was found that the solution procedure of
ionized electric field and EHD turbulence flow can be described in the
following sequence [29,35]:
1) Provide an initial guess of ρw (calculated by Kaptzov's approxima-
tion, i.e., Eq. (10)) for space charge density at the surface of the
discharge wire.
2) Combine and solve Eq. (3) to Eq. (4) for the electric potential and
space-charge density.
3) Repeat Step 2) until a converged solution of Eq. (3) and Eq. (4) is
obtained.
4) Calculate electric field near the discharge surface and compare the
result with the value calculated from Peek's semi-empirical formula,
i.e. Eq. (11).
5) Adjust boundary conditions for ρw on the discharge electrode if the
electric field intensity E(n) of the electrode surface does not fit the
requirement of Eq. (12).
6) Return to Step 2) and repeat Steps 2) to 5).
7) Solve flow Eq. (1) to Eq. (2) with momentum term ρionEi and RNG k-
ε model.
8) Return to Step 2) until the calculation of Eq. (1) and Eq. (2) con-
verged.
Fig. 3 gives the flow chart of the FLUENT solution process for the
ESP simulation.
To make the calculation more accurate, the meshes around the
discharge electrode and the collecting electrode are refined. Because of
the simultaneous simulation of the turbulent flow field and electric field
easily diverges, and when the simulation does converge, it converges
slowly. Thus, the electric field is calculated to convergence first, and the
flow field is calculated to convergence second. Finally all equations are
calculated to convergence simultaneously. If the monitoring parameters
of the numerical calculation no longer fluctuate, the field is considered
converged.
3.3. Model validation
In order to validate the accuracy of the numerical model, the cal-
culation of the electric potential in a wire-flat-plate-type electrostatic
65
Journal of Electrostatics 95 (2018) 61–70
precipitator is conducted and the results are compared with a set of
classical experimental data by Penney and Matick [38]. The electric
potential distributions of numerical results and Penney's experimental
data at different values of y along x direction are plotted in Fig. 4. The
model of electric field accurately reproduces the experimental results of
Penney and Matick [38], which means that the present model is able to
give excellent predictions of electric field and space charge density.
To verify the rationality of the turbulence model used to simulate
the gas flow coupled with electric wind, Fig. 5 shows comparisons of
the average velocity distributions between the numerical results and
laser-anemometry results of Leonard et al. [39] for the ionic wind in-
duced turbulent flows in the channel with u0 = 1 m/s.
Fig. 5 shows that the calculated velocity distribution at x = 0 along
the y direction of the present model agrees reasonably with the ex-
perimental data by Leonard et al. [39]. It can be seen that the increase
of the velocity at the center of the channel and vortexes induced by
electric wind near the wall become evident with increasing electric
current. Compared with the experimental results, the present model can
give detailed information of the EHD flow near the wall. Therefore, the
numerical model used in this study is appropriate for the simulation of
the EHD flow in the ESP channel.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Electrical characteristics in the ESP channel
The electrical characteristics and the gas flow patterns in the ESP
are simulated by the present model for the five shaped collecting
electrodes. In order to eliminate the influence of the inlet and outlet
boundary conditions on the numerical results, the distances between
both the first corona wire and the inlet and the third wire and the outlet
of the calculation domain are set to be 0.12 m. Numerical results of
electrical characteristics in the ESP channel of five shaped collecting
electrodes are shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7.
From Figs. 6 and 7 it is found that, for all the five electrode systems,
the electric field intensity and space charge density in the vicinity of the
discharge wire are not affected by the shape of collecting electrode, but
⇀
the values of E and ρion decrease gradually along the direction from the
discharge wires to the collecting electrodes. Fig. 6 shows that there are
some differences between the five electric field distributions. The uni-
formities of the electric intensity near the collecting plates are similar
for Flat-plate, Rod-curtain, and Opzel-types, see Fig. 6(a) and (b) and
6(e). Although the averaged electric intensity near the zigzag plate, i.e.,
Fig. 6(c), is relatively high compared to the other four types, there
exists a weak intensity region near the collecting surface (the bottom of
the plate) directly opposite the corona wire. For the C-type, see
Fig. 6(d), the concave corners of the plate are shielding zones of the
discharge process, where neither the electric field nor the space charge
density is very weak.
The field strength and space charge density midway between two
neighboring discharge electrodes are low because of the corona sup-
pression effect, as shown in Fig. 7. Comparing the results from Fig. 7(a)
and 7(e), if ρion < 0.1 ρion,max as the threshold of weak region, in which
ρion,max is the maxmum value of ρion in the channel, it is found that, in
descending order, the widths of the low-value region are: Flat-plate,
Opzel-type, Rod-curtain, C-type, and finally W-type, meaning that
particles are not charged efficiently when passing through this region.
The distribution of electric field intensity and space charge density
near the surface of the collecting plate have a great influence on the
charging and trapping of the particles [13,14,19–21]. For further
comparison of the differences of the electric field and the space charge
distributions between the five shaped collecting channels, Fig. 8 and
Fig. 9 depict the variations of the electric field intensity and space
charge density along the x direction near the surface of the collecting
electrode facing to the second corona wire. The distances between the
H. Shen et al. Journal of Electrostatics 95 (2018) 61–70

Fig. 3. Flow chart of the FLUENT solution process for the ESP simulation.

numerical sampling points and the plate surfaces is 0.5 mm. The Roman
letters, I, II, III, IV and V, denote the channels of Flat-plate, Rod-curtain,
W-type, C-type and Opzel-type, respectively, and AVG and RSD in the
tables contained in Figs. 8 and 9 are the averaged values of ρion and E,
and relative standard deviations, respectively.
Although the overall trends are similar, Fig. 8 shows that the shape
of the collecting electrode has a strong effect on the distribution of
space charge density near the surface of the collecting plate, i.e., the
space charge density decreases along both sides of the point x = 0 (the
peak value of Rod-curtain type decreases with periodic variation). The

66
H. Shen et al.
Fig. 4. Comparision of electrical potential distributions in a wire-plate ESP
between numerical results and experimental test [38] (r = 0.3 mm,
Sy = 114.3 mm, Sx = 152.4 mm, U0 = 43.5 kV).
Fig. 5. Comparison between the numerical results of this study and experi-
mental data in wire-plate ESPs [39] (u0 = 1 m/s, r = 0.1 mm, Sy = 30 mm).
concave-convex of the W-type collecting plate leads to the changes of
space charge density distribution, therefore, the best uniformity of
space charge density near the collecting surface is from the W-type
electrode, which takes the smallest peak value. The fluctuation of space
charge density near the Rod-curtain collecting surface is largest, which
has the maximum peak among the five. Moreover, there is a peak value
of space charge density near each collecting tube of the Rod-curtain
type. On the other hand, for the same parameters, i.e., Sx, Sy, r and U0,
Fig. 6. Electric field intensity distributions in the ESP channel of five shaped collecting electrodes.
67
Journal of Electrostatics 95 (2018) 61–70
of the ESP channel, the difference of averaged space charge density
between different types of collecting plates is not significant, and the
highest averaged charge density is the C-type plate.
Fig. 9 shows that the geometric configurations of collecting elec-
trode has significant effects on the electric field intensity distribution in
the ESP channel, and the concave-convex changes of the collecting
plate can easily create a peak of electric field intensity. Similar to the
space charge density distributions shown in Fig. 8, the electric field
intensity of the Rod-curtain type fluctuates periodically, and the peak
value is the highest among the five configurations, followed by the C-
type plate and then the Flat-plate. There is a peak of electric field in-
tensity near each collecting tube of the Rod-curtain type, with a valley
at the gap between the two tubes.
4.2. Flow patterns of electric wind
The EHD turbulent flow in an ESP channel plays a crucial role in the
improvement of particle collecting efficiency, which not only affects the
charged particle trajectories and capture, but also causes the escape of
particles from the collecting plate, especially the back-mixing of PM2.5-
based small particles. Therefore, numerical computations of the EHD
flow induced by the corona wind were performed for three different
inlet gas velocities. Fig. 10 to Fig. 12 show the flow velocity distribu-
tions and flow streamlines in the ESP channel of the five configurations,
where ue is the local velocity of the coupled EHD flow.
It can be seen from Fig. 10 that in the ESP channel without the cross
flow, i.e., u0 = 0 m/s, the electric wind develops and creates a series of
vortical flow structure between discharge electrodes and collecting
plates. The intensity of vortices induced by secondary flow in the ESP of
the C-type collecting plate is the highest (Fig. 10(d)), then the Flat-plate
type (Fig. 10(a)) and the Opzel-type (Fig. 10(e), and the weakest is the
W-type plate (see Fig. 10(c). The secondary flow velocity near the
surface of the C-type collecting plate is 1.5 times that of the W-type
plate. In addition, there is a vortex with low velocity between two tubes
of the Rod-curtain type, and these two tubes located at the middle of
two neighboring corona wires, as shown in the enlarge view of
Fig. 11(b).
For u0 = 0.5 m/s, the secondary flow induced vortex only exists in
the region near the collecting plate, which can be seen from Fig. 11. The
W-type collecting plate offers the widest secondary flow induced vortex
region, the strongest rotation intensity and the maximum velocity
around the discharge electrode. The C-type collecting plate is next, and
then the other plate types. Comparison of areas directly scoured by the
primary flow shows that the Flat-plate type has the largest area, the
Rod-curtain type plate is next, and the C-type plate has the smallest
area. Consequently, at u0 = 0.5 m/s, the Flat-plate type has the most
serious back-mixing, the Rod-curtain type takes second place, the W-
type is similar to the Opzel-type, and the C-type has the weakest back-
mixing.
When the mean velocity increases to u0 = 1.0 m/s, as shown in
H. Shen et al. Journal of Electrostatics 95 (2018) 61–70

Fig. 7. Space charge density distributions in the ESP channel of five shaped collecting electrodes.

is able to accelerate the main flow, while the local velocity near the
collecting plate is much lower than that in the main stream. The
strongest acceleration effect from the electric wind occurs in the
channel with the C-type collecting plate, with the Opzel-type plate next,
and then the others.
In general, the particle trapping can be qualitatively estimated from
the following two aspects. For one thing, the lower velocity near the
collecting plate could result in the easier deposition of particles
[7,10,16,22]; nevertheless, the migration velocity of the charged par-
ticles is also one of the main factors affecting particle deposition
[18,19,21]. Therefore, comparing to the low velocity areas of the re-
circulation region near the collecting plates between the five config-
urations, the C-type collecting plate at u0 = 0.5 m/s in Fig. 10 and the
W-type collecting plate at u0 = 1.0 m/s in Fig. 11 seem to be ad-
vantageous for the charged particle collection.

5. Conclusions
Fig. 8. Comparison of space charge density distributions at collecting surface
A numerical model is developed to predict the EHD flow interaction
for the five electrode systems.
between the primary flow and the electric wind in five differently
shaped plate type ESPs. The main results are summarized as follows:

1) Generally, the influences of the collecting plate type on the electrical

2) The W-type collecting electrode produces a nearly uniform space
3) For a low averaged gas velocity, i.e., u0 = 0.5 m/s, the electric wind
Fig. 9. Comparison of electric field intensity distributions at collecting surface
for the five electrode systems.
Fig. 12, the vortices induced by the electric wind are weaken and pu-
shed to the collecting surfaces in all the five channels. However, the
local velocity in a large portion of the channel is higher than the
average velocity, which is consistent with the experimental data of
Leonard et al. [39]. It is clearly found in Fig. 12 that the secondary flow
characteristics are clearly significant. Notably, the bending of the
collecting plate easily leads to a peak value of electric field intensity
in the vicinity of the collecting plates.
charge density along the electrode in the streamwise direction, and
the space charge density of the Rod-curtain plate possesses a large
number of peaks, which are larger than that of the other plate types.
These two configurations may be beneficial to particle capture.
Although the Opzel-type plate has the maximum electric field
strength peak, it has no practical advantage in dust removal.
induced vortex exists near the collecting plate of all the five types of
ESPs, and the W-type channel has the widest region of secondary
flow, the strongest rotation intensity and the maximum velocity
around the discharge electrode among the five systems. When u0 is
increased to 1.0 m/s, the ionic wind effect still exists in the C-type
channel compared to the other four types, and it accelerates the
primary flow, while the main flow influenced by the electric wind
becomes weaker and the secondary flow is shrunk in the bottom
zone of the W-type channel. In addition, the size of the low-velocity
region in the Rod-curtain type has no significant variation as the
inlet velocity is increased from zero to 1.0 m/s.

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H. Shen et al. Journal of Electrostatics 95 (2018) 61–70

Fig. 10. Comparison of ionic wind induced flows between the five collecting plate systems (u0 = 0 m/s).

Fig. 11. Comparison of the coupling flows between the five collecting plate systems (u0 = 0.5 m/s).

Fig. 12. Comparison of the flow patterns between the five collecting plate systems (u0 = 1.0 m/s).

Acknowledgements f0 surface roughness coefficient of discharge electrodes, 0.7 to

1.0
This work was supported by the National Natural Science h representative mesh size
Foundation of China (Grant No. 51578121), and the Chinese i current of discharge wire (A)
Universities Scientific Fund (Grant No. CUSF-DH-D-2017094). The au- Jt average current density on the collecting electrode (A/m2)
thors would like to thank Dr. D. Gottfried for his helpful discussions and k turbulent kinetic energy (m2/s2)
recommendations. kion ion mobility coefficient, 1.8 × 10−4 m2/(V⋅s)
l length of discharge wire (m)
Nomenclature m order of discretization method
n vector of surface
a distance of two neighboring collecting rods/tubes (m) N total number of cells
b half-height of W-type cavity (m) p pressure (Pa)
c height of C-type cavity (m) r radius of discharge wire (m)
d edge length of angle (m) rc grid refinement factor
De ion diffusivity coefficient, 0.01–0.1 m2/s s area of cell
Fi convective flux of standard scalar transport equation in the Sϕ source term in standard scalar transport equation
ith direction (N) Sx distance of wire-to-wire (m)
Ei electric field strength in the ith direction (V/m) Sy distance of wire-to-plate (m)
Ek electric field strength in the kth direction (V/m) T gas temperature (K)
EPeek electric field strength of Peek's semi-empirical formula (V/m) u0 gas velocity at the inlet (m/s)
E(n) electric field strength of n-th iteration on the discharge uk gas velocity component in the kth direction (m/s)
electrode (V/m) ui gas velocity component in the ith direction (m/s)

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H. Shen et al. Journal of Electrostatics 95 (2018) 61–70

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