The role of fluid turbulence on contact electrification of suspended particles

A probabilistic version of a well-known phenomenological model for contact electrification is used to examine the effect of fluid turbulence on charge development for suspended particles as a function of the particle Stokes number. The distribution of particle collisions and particle charge appear to approach asymptotic states for high values of the Kolmogorov-scale Stokes numbers, exhibiting approximately normal distributions. The influence on particle contact electrification of differences in initial charge carrier density and in particle size are examined.