Abstract
The air-water separators in this study are based on the principle of the electrostatic precipitator with the positive and negative poles, which has been widely utilized to collect the dust contained in flue gas exhausted from the industrial plants such as coal fired power station.
This mechanism of separation is that the water droplets charged negative ions by corona discharge are collected on the positive pole by the Coulomb force operating between the both poles.
Two kinds of experimental separators for vertical upward flow are used, one consists of a duct with a crosssection of 52×52mm and length of 700mm made of transparent acrylic plate with two sheets of zinc plate as positive pole and copper wires of φ 0.32mm as negative pole, and the other consists of a cylinder of φ 57.2mm and maximum length of 462mm made of stainless steel as positive pole and a stainless wire of φ 1.0mm as negative pole.
The whole experimental duct is of the same material and the same sross-section as the former separator so that the atomizing condition of water from the nozzle and the behavior of water droplets can easily be observed.
Experiments were conducted at 2.2 to 4.0m/s in mean air velocity and 0 to 17kV in DC high voltage, and the fractional separation efficiency and overall efficiency were obtained, and the performances of all separators were discussed.
