Computation of electrical conditions inside wire-duct electrostatic precipitators using a combined finite-element, finite-difference technique

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Abstract
An accurate and efficient numerical scheme is presented for calculating electrical conditions inside wire‐duct electrostatic precipitators. A Galerkin finite‐element method with quadratic interpolation is employed in solving Poisson’s equation to yield the electric potential solution. A backward difference method is utilized to compute the space‐charge density from the continuity equation. The two methods are iteratively applied until convergence criteria for electric potential and current density are met. Computed potential and electric field values show good agreement with analytic solutions and experimental measurements. Comparisons between the present scheme and a finite‐difference scheme show that the finite‐element method offers distinct advantages in predicting the electrical characteristics of precipitators.