An optical study of negative-corona tuft distribution for pulsed electrostatic precipitator applications

The authors describe the use of an optical multichannel analyser (OMA) to obtain quantitative information on corona discharge characteristics for use in the simulation of pulse-energised electrostatic precipitation. Results for a bench-scale wire-plate system are presented and discussed. These results are then incorporated into a simulation of corona in a wire-tube geometry and the simulation results are compared with measured I-V characteristics to illustrate the importance of the OMA-derived information. For pulses superimposed on a DC bias (as is common in electrostatic precipitator applications), it is found that a more uniformly distributed corona results when the DC bias is below the corona threshold. However, if the DC bias is held above the corona inception voltage, there is no improvement in uniformity over the case of pure DC energisation.