Electrohydrodynamic Flow and Particle Dynamics in Four-shaped Electrostatic Precipitators via a Modified Eulerian Approach

Electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) are essential for particulate removal from industrial emissions, yet the investigation of the influence of electrode geometry and arrangement on the flow patterns, electrical characteristics, and collection efficiency remains insufficient. In the present study, the finite volume method in ANSYS Fluent with User-Defined Functions is employed to simulate the flow pattern and particle transportation in duct-type ESPs for four discharge‒collecting configurations (i.e., combinations of rod-wire corona electrode with planar and wavy collecting plates). The results reveal that the corona electrode’s geometry plays a key role in determining the electric field strength, charge distribution, and ionic wind generation in the channels, while the collecting plate’s curvature primarily influences the field intensity near its surface. In the wavy plate channel, evident vortices appear in the concave area adjacent to the collecting wall at a moderate inlet velocity (u0 = 0.5 m/s), which enhances the local flow that favors particle deposition and thus improves collection efficiency. At a high inlet velocity (u0 = 1.0 m/s), the enhancement effect attributed to flow-induced deposition is reduced in all four channels because the flow acceleration caused by electric wind adversely affects the collection efficiency. The numerical results provide practical information for optimizing the design of the electrode structure and the channel configuration to improve the ESP performance under varying operational parameters.