Created by-Gourab Patra

Mechanical Engineering Department

September,2012
Bengal engineering & science university, shibpur
Why use ESP?
One of the major air pollution problems is due to the particulate
emissions from many large industrial units.
The concentration of solid air pollutants in the vicinity of the
industrial areas constitutes a constant offence to all inhabitants and
the environment.
These pollutants composed mainly of AlO3, SiO2, CaO and Fe2O3.
The major part of this quantity is composed of particles with
diameters less than10 m which can be inhaled with air.
Electrostatic precipitators are widely used to control the particulate
emissions.
Cleaning efficiency of an ESP may vary between 90% and 99%
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The optimisation of the cleaning efficiency of ESPs is
important in a wide range of industrial applications.

Present paper describes the development and
assessment of a complete design and optimisation
method.
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In this paper the numerical method and the associated
models are analysed first; then detailed results are
presented and discussed and the final conclusions are
drawn thereupon.
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Structure of The Procedure:
1.1. Flow field modelling.
1.2. Electric field
modelling.
1.3. Particle dynamics.
1.4. Particle
reentrainment.
1. The
numerical
method
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2.1. Original operating
conditions.
2.2. Optimisation study-
insertion of smoothing grids.
2. Results
and
discussion.
3.
Conclusions.
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1.1. Flow-field modelling
The first consideration in the development of a design method for
electrostatic precipitators is the modelling of the flow field.
The flow is turbulent, three dimensional.
Cartesian computational grid is used to model the ESP.
Cartesian grids provide the advantage of fast grid generation.
The data of these surfaces (Fig.) are introduced in a pre-processor
that creates the necessary inlet, outlet and wall boundary
conditions for the cells.
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The continuity and momentum equations are

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Where,
is the density,
u
i
and X
i
are the Cartesian velocity components and coordinate
directions, respectively.
P is the pressure .
denotes the dynamic viscosity.
At this point, the complete three dimensional flow field is
solved iteratively, assuming that it is influenced neither by
the particulate phase nor the electric field.
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2.2. Electric field modelling
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The electric field of an electrostatic precipitator is defined by
the following equations:
where is the density of the electric current, the charge
density, the air dielectric constant, b the ion mobility, the
electric field and the electric potential.
E
0

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These equations are reduced to:
Boundary conditions for solving this set of equations:
1. The electric potential on the electrode surface is constant and equal
to the corona onset value.
2. At the grounded collecting plates, potential value is zero.
3. The third condition is related to the first derivative of the electric
potential on the electrode surface and its mathematical form is given
by,

2 / 1
) / ( r B A E
on

(9)
where E
on
is the ion current threshold value for an electrode of
radius r and is the relative density of air (with respect to the
normal conditions). A and B are constants with values
A=30.110
5
v/m


B=9.0610
4
v/m
1/2

for an electrode-plate set-up.
Under the above conditions, the system of the electric-
field equations is solved using the grid presented in the
figure on the next slide.
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1.3. Particle dynamics
In this step a Langrangian approach is adopted, in which a
particle trajectory is calculated and monitored until collection
or escape in the atmosphere occurs.
The Langrangian representation of the solid phase gives an
accurate prediction of the electrostatic precipitator-collection
efficiency, provided that a large number of particle trajectories
is monitored.
For the present study, the order of magnitude of the monitored
trajectories is 10
6
.
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The particle motion inside a gas flow is described by;

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, , , ,
) 1 ( ). (
4
3
, , ,
,
z y x i u
dt
dx
g u u u u
d
C
dt
du
i
i
p
i i p i i p i
p p
d
i p

Subscript p denotes particle properties. the gravity force and c

d
is
the aerodynamic drag coefficient. corresponds to external forces
exerted on the particle that, in the present case, are the electrostatic
forces:
i

i
g
(10)
(11)
,
,
/
/
p p y y
p p x x
m q E
m q E

(12)
(13)
The electric charge of the particles is analytically calculated by the
charging equation
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Where, q
p
=Instant particle charge.
q
s
=Saturation charge.


e =Electron charge.
v
m
=Average thermal ion velocity.
r
p
=Particle radius.

c
=Charge density.
k is the Boltzmann constant, T the gas temperature and K the
dielectric constant of the particle material.

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The saturation charge, the average thermal ion velocity and the ion
mobility are given by the following relations:
b
s
= Ion mobility in normal T
0
and P
0
conditions.


The integration of Eq. (14) is done with a fourth order Runge-Kutta
method, along with the integration of the motion Eqs.(10) and (11).
1.4. Particle reentrainment
Most significant factor for reducing collecting efficiency.
The dust collected on the plate surface is subject to the reentrainment
mechanism.
Occurs due to;
rapping action on the collecting plates.
erosion by particles and the fluid flow.
the weight of the particle agglomerations.
above mechanisms produce a dust detachment off the plates that
drifts a significant amount of particle mass back into the flow.
Usually, the size of the reentrained particles ranges from the
submicron to the 10 m scale.
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23
The reentrainment modelling is based on the following relation:
P
r
is the mass fraction of a detached dust agglomeration that will be
reentrained into the flow.
L is the length of the distance, which the agglomeration
has travelled after its detachment.
A, B are constants. For the ESP under experiment, A =0.003 and
B =2.


This model is reliable only when the monitored particle trajectories
are at least of the order of 500000.
2. Results & discussions
Findings from the numerical analysis :
1. Effect of particle reentrainment mostly governs the collecting
efficiency of an ESP.
2. This effect can be minimized by an aerodynamic optimisation of
the velocity profile.
3. Most of reentrainment occurs at the upper section of the collector
plate, velocity of the particles is to be minimised here.
4. This is done by employing a skewed velocity profile with a
skewness factor less than 1.

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Skewness factor:
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The skewness factor represents the ratio of the flow velocity at the top
section over the velocity at the bottom section of the filter.
2.1. Original operating conditions.
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The typical operating conditions of the industrial ESP are as follows:
The inlet flue gases velocity = 18.43 m/s.
Inlet temperature 191.31
o
C.
Density =0.67 kg/m
3
.
Table 1 presents a detailed view of the particle size distribution at the inlet,


The velocity profile at the collecting section inlet is highly non-
uniform and skewed in the adverse direction than the desired
one.(next fig.).
It is expected that reentrainment will be enhanced, causing a
degradation at the filters collecting efficiency.
The reason for the poor aerodynamic quality of the flow at the
central section is the sudden expansion in geometrical configuration.
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Velocity Profile observed from the x-y plane:
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3.2. Optimisation study-insertion
of smoothing grids

The optimisation is carried out by insertion of smoothing grids.
These grids can be easily constructed and implemented into the unit
at very low cost.
The grids have a cell structure, with variable cell density, which
corresponds to a resistance coefficient.
The insertion of five smoothing grids at the positions x = 15:0; 17.9,
18.2, 35.3 and 36:6m, gave a quasi-uniform velocity profile, which
corresponds to substantially improved aerodynamic characteristics.
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It is observed that the collecting areas are wider and smoother, with
an important section of them extended to the lower parts of the
collecting plates.
The mass balance of this section gave an efficiency value of 98.8%,
which corresponds to a 44% emissions reduction in comparison with
the original operating conditions.
This result proves that with the insertion of cost-effective smoothing
grids, the cleaning efficiency of a unit can be significantly improved.
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3.conclusions:
The methodology presented in the Sections 12 constitutes a
modular approach to the modelling of electrostatic precipitators.
The advanced tools and models implemented therein are based on
physical considerations and contain very few empirical parameters.
It can be used to simulate precipitation mechanisms in any kind of
industrial process.
The agreement with the available experimental data is considered
satisfactory and therefore, the present methodology has been used in
order to optimise aerodynamically the cleaning efficiency of the
precipitator.
Over all, it may be concluded that the methodology presented in this
paper can be successfully used for the design and optimisation of
industrial electrostatic precipitators.
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Future work in this field will comprise the introduction of the ionic
wind effects on the gas phase, as well as the interaction of the
particle charges with the electric field properties.
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acknowledgements:
This presentation is fully adapted from the research work of
Agamemnon A.Varonos, John S.Anagnostopoulos, George
C.Bergeles on PREDICTION OF CLEANING EFFICIENCY OF
AN ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR published in Journal of
Electrostatics vol. 55 (2002) 111133 .
I downloaded it from www.sciencedirect.com .
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