Deposition efficiency of dust particles on a single, falling and charged water droplet

A numerical algorithm for simulating dust particle deposition on a charged spherical collector is presented in this paper. Trajectories of the charged dust particles are traced in three-dimensional space by solving the Newton equation, taking into account inertial, air drag, gravitational and electrostatic forces. The collector (charged droplet) falls down freely and its trajectory is also determined. A laminar viscous model is assumed for the airflow in the vicinity of the collector and modeled using the finite-element method in two-dimensional cylindrical coordinates. The deposition efficiency is defined in terms of the volume of space, from which all particles are deposited on the collector. The calculation results for different Stokes, Coulomb, and Reynolds numbers are given.