Electrostatic separation of particles from air onto a liquid surface has attracted increasing attention for various applications such as wet electrostatic precipitators and bioaerosol samplers. In this study, the electrostatic separation of particles onto the liquid surface is numerically modeled in a simplified manner. The simulated separation efficiency is validated by experimental values reported in literature. The effects of ionic wind and Coulombic force on particle separation for various electrical mobilities, applied voltages, and air flow rates are studied by decomposing the total separation efficiency into two components: Coulombic and ionic-wind separation efficiencies. Both Coulombic and ionic-wind separation efficiencies show the same behaviors as the total separation efficiency with changes in the operating conditions: they increase with increasing applied voltage and particle electrical mobility, and with decreasing air flow rate. Overall, the ionic-wind separation efficiency is higher than the Coulombic separation efficiency, mainly because of the short residence time. However, when the applied voltage and particle electrical mobility are high, and the air flow rate is low, the Coulombic force outperforms the ionic wind. Time-scale analysis well explains the relations between the relative importance of each separation mechanism and the operating parameters.
The unipolar saturation current limit ($${I}_{sat}$$ I sat ) gives an upper limit to the corona current that can be obtained from a unipolar corona discharge. Therefore, it implies a theoretical limit to the performance of unipolar corona discharge devices. However, it has not been widely used in practice because it is difficult to deal with complex discharge configurations in an analytical way. This study aims to establish and validate a numerical methodology to evaluate the maximum current, which numerically imitates the unipolar saturation current limit. It was shown that the maximum current has the same mathematical definition as the unipolar saturation current. For validation, the maximum current was compared with an analytical solution of the Poisson equation for the coaxial cylinders configuration. The differences between the maximum current and unipolar saturation current limit for the coaxial cylinders, pin-to-plane, and single wire-to-plane configurations were discussed in terms of the assumptions used in the semi-analytical derivation of the unipolar saturation current limit. The validated methodology was applied to a multiple wire-to-plane configuration, for which a semi-analytical expression of the unipolar saturation current limit has not yet been developed. The effects of geometric and operation parameters on the maximum currents of the multiple wire-to-plane configuration were analyzed. The results were regressed into a single formula.
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