A domain decomposition method for three species modeling of multi-electrode negative corona discharge – With applications to electrostatic precipitators

•Development of an efficient solver for the three species negative discharge problem using domain decomposition.•Solving the three species negative corona discharge problem in multi-electrode geometries.•Current density profiles of electrostatic precipitator geometry matched with simulations.•Use of three species simulations in multi-physics simulations of electrostatic precipitation.•Calculation of particle collection efficiency for electrostatic precipitator.

The negative corona discharge problem for multi-electrode geometries is modeled by a three species model. The equations are solved using domain decomposition, by recognizing that multiple species are only present in a small part of the domain, and hence only need to be incorporated locally in the model.The method is applied to an industrially relevant three wire electrostatic precipitator geometry. The calculated current density is in good agreement with experimental data. To further illustrate applications of the three species solution, it is used for coupled particle, fluid, and electrostatic simulations to analyze particle collection properties.