AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Simulation of Electrohydrodynamic Flow and Particle Motion in Electrostatic Precipitators Under Turbulent Conditions
AUSTIN ANDREWS, Christopher Hogan Jr., University of Minnesota
Abstract Number: 54 Working Group: Control and Mitigation Technology
Abstract Electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) continue to be a widely applied technology for the collection of particles in coal combustors and electrostatic air cleaners. ESPs are typically operated under turbulent flow conditions, yet the electrostatic body force term can have a non-negligible influence on the fluid flow within ESPs. These collective effects complicate prediction of particle charging, motion, and collection in ESPs from engineering first principles. To better facilitate ESP modeling, we have developed a solver using the open source CFD library OpenFOAM, in which Menter’s shear stress turbulence model (RANS) is used with an electrostatic body force term to solve for fluid momentum, ion and particle concentrations are modeled using convection-reaction mass transfer equations (with particles of different size and charge state modeled as distinct species), and the Poisson equation is used for the electrostatic potential. To solve these coupled equations, a custom solver was developed which utilizes a finite volume method with first order solution schemes. The model is validated by comparing the velocity profile in the streamwise (flow) direction in a wire-plate ESP to previously published PIV measurements wherein the electrostatic body force had an appreciable influence on the fluid flow profile. We propose that this solver can be employed to examine particle dynamics in a variety of environments where both turbulent flow and electrostatics are significant.