Numerical investigation of powder trajectories and deposition in tribocharge powder coating

An iterative numerical algorithm for simulating particle trajectories in the tribocharge powder-coating process is presented in this paper. The electric field distribution is determined by means of the finite-element method. The particle trajectories are predicted by integrating the differential equation of motion, resulting from the Newton equation. The density of the space charge in the powder cloud is estimated using the particle-in-cell algorithm. All problems are solved iteratively until a self-consistent solution is found for all the involved parameters. The algorithm has been applied to a few different models of the problem assuming mono- and polydispersed powders. The effect of powder parameters on the wrap-round and Faraday-cage effects has been investigated.