Experimental and numerical investigations of the corona characteristics of a new Tri-electrode system for electrostatic separation processes

Faculty of Engineering at Shoubra, Benha University, 108 Shoubra st., Cairo, Egypt

^a e-mail: mabouelsaad@yahoo.com

Received: 4 April 2014
Revised: 12 June 2014
Accepted: 17 June 2014
Published online: 13 August 2014

Abstract

The paper presents the measurement and computation of the corona onset voltages, electric field and ion current density profiles of a new “Tri-electrode system” intended for electrostatic separation applications. Unlike the well-known “dual cylinder-wire electrode system”, the new system utilizes an extra adjustable wire in order to provide the means for a more efficient ion charging current; necessary for separation of different granular mixtures. An experimental setup is constructed to model the present multi-electrode arrangement. The measurements are carried out for wire diameters between 0.3–1.0 μm and for different geometrical parameters. Without resorting to the commonly used Deutch’s assumption, a computational scheme is developed to solve the corona equations and to compute the associated ionized field quantities of the system. Mapping of the ion flow field patterns demonstrates the impact of this assumption on the solution’s accuracy. The computed results were found to be in good agreement with experiments. The configuration offers a more efficient charging process and separation in comparison with earlier separators’ designs.