Calculation of ionized fields in DC electrostatic precipitators in the presence of dust and electric wind

This paper describes a new procedure for the numerical computation of the electric field and current density distributions in a DC electrostatic precipitator in the presence of dust, taking into account the particle-size distribution. Poisson's and continuity equations are numerically solved by supposing that the coronating conductors satisfy Kaptzov's assumption on the emitter surfaces. Two iterative numerical procedures, both based on the finite element method (FEM), are implemented for evaluating, respectively, the unknown ionic charge density and the particle charge density distributions. The V-I characteristic and the precipitation efficiencies for the individual particle-size classes, calculated with reference to the pilot precipitator installed by ENEL (Italian Electricity Board) at its Marghera (Venice) coal-fired power station, are found to be very close to those measured experimentally.