A Simulation Study of the Applied Voltage Effect on the Performance of Electrostatic Precipitators

الملخص

    Electrostatic precipitators are widely used in recent times to get rid of dust particles suspended in the flue gases. This is done by applying high voltage to the precipitator electrodes of the type (wire - plate) immersed in air. A strongly non-uniform electric field is produced when a potential difference is applied to the electrodes. The performance and efficiency of ESPs depends mainly on the applied voltage and electric field distribution. In this work, a two-dimensional computer simulation was performed using COMSOL MultiPhysics software. The effect of different voltages (20, 25, 30, 35 kV) on the efficiency of the precipitator applied to the three inner electrodes was studied. The finite element method (FEM) was used to simulate the cross-section of the (plate wire) precipitators. It was observed through the results that the accumulated charged particles on the collector plates increase with the increase in the applied voltage, and thus the efficiency increases significantly, reaching 100% at the applied voltage of 30 and 35 kV.