Discharging effect on charged oil flow by wire net screen: electrostatic screener

Abstract Two kinds of cylindrical oil tanks of 40cm φ × 40cm (40 l) and 80cm φ × 80 cm (400 l) have been used to test the discharging effectiveness by circulating light oil through a diffuser at the oil inlet of the tank, and attaching various kinds of stainless steel mesh screens set at the diffuser. A remarkable discharging effectiveness obtained by this method has been about 90% in the case of a single screen, but has reached 99% in the case of combined screens. A probe potential method has been used to measure the time dependent potentials in the quasi-laminar flow of circulating oil at the center of the tank. A spherical model for the test tank has been assumed to calculate the charges distributed in the tank. The total charge obtained from the streaming current has been close to that obtained by the probe potential.