Modelling of near corona wire electrohydrodynamic flow in a wire-plate electrostatic precipitator

The modelling of the flow velocity fields for near corona wire electrohydrodynamic (EHD) flow was performed. The steady, two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations have been computed for a wire-to-plate type electrostatic precipitator (ESP). The numerical simulation used Phoenics (Version 3.5.1) CFD code coupled with Poisson´s and ion transport equations, and electric body force in momentum equation which were developed in this study. The Chen-Kim modified k-ε turbulent model was used to obtain a quantitative image of the resulting mean flow field and the downstream wake flow of rear wire for EHD flow. The flow velocity field pattern showed a strong EHD secondary flow clearly visible in the downstream regions of the corona wire in spite of low Reynolds number for the electrode (Re_cw=12.4). The secondary flow vortices are caused by the EHD also when discharge current is increased.