A novel approach for evaluating the effect of external electric field on charged particles based on the Lagrangian particle tracking method

Abstract This paper develops a novel approach for evaluating charged particles' collision probability in the external electric field of a regular two-stage electrostatic precipitator based on Lagrangian particle tracking method, which overcomes itself difficulties and that of the Eulerian method. The numerical simulation aims to obtain the particles' accumulated displacement which is a parameter to reflect the efficiency of particle collision. The effect factors of frequency, gas velocity, plate spacing and applied voltage are also considered. Results indicate that the external electric field of R-AC is more beneficial to particle collision compared to the other waveforms of AC. Besides, frequency and plate spacing are not found to have obvious or regular effect on collision probability, but the promotion effect of applied voltage on it was obtained. The dimensionless coefficient analysis provides extremely useful information for the optimization of working conditions in different types of the external electric field.