Numerical and experimental evaluation of fly ash collection efficiency in electrostatic precipitators

•This paper evaluates the influence of different geometrical and operating parameters of wire-duct electrostatic precipitators on its fly ash collection efficiency.•A proto-type design that represents the precipitator was successfully designed and fabricated at the research institute of KFUPM Smoke of fired coal was used as a source of seed particles of PM10 category.•An indication of the effectiveness of the numerical approach was carried out through a comparison of computed results and presently and previously obtained experimental data.

This paper evaluates experimentally and numerically the influence of different geometrical and operating parameters of a single stage wire-duct electrostatic precipitators (WDEP) on its fly ash collection efficiency. The governing equations are solved under dust loading conditions using the finite element method (FEM) and a modified method of characteristics (MMC). In addition, a proto-type design that represents a WDEP was successfully designed and fabricated at the research institute of KFUPM (RI-KFUPM). The experiments were carried out under laboratory conditions where the WDEP was made of Plexiglas with a length of 2 m, height of 1 m, wire-to-collecting plate spacing of 0.2–0.3 m, and an inter-electrode (wire-to-wire) spacing of 0.16–0.21 m. Smoke of fired coal was used as a source of seed particles of PM10 category (with 75–80% of particles lying below 10 μmμm). An indication of the effectiveness of the numerical approach was carried out through a comparison of computed results as well as presently and previously obtained experimental data.