Modeling and Validation of Nanoparticle Charging Efficiency of a Single-Wire Corona Unipolar Charger

Abstract

A single-wire corona unipolar aerosol charger with a sheath air to avoid particle loss was designed and experimental charging efficiencies were obtained at a fixed aerosol flow rate of 1 L/min using monodisperse silver nanoparticles of 2.5 to 20 nm in diameter. The charger has a cylindrical casing of 30 mm in inner diameter in which a gold wire of 50 mu m in diameter and 2 mm in length is used as the discharge electrode. A two-dimensional (2-D) numerical model was developed to predict nanoparticle charging efficiency in the unipolar charger. Laminar flow field was solved by using the Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure Linked Equations (SIMPLER method), while electric potential and ion concentration fields were solved on the basis of Poisson and convection-diffusion equations, respectively. The charged particle concentration fields and charging efficiencies were then calculated on the basis of the convection-diffusion equation in which ion-particle combination coefficient was calculated by Fuchs diffusion charging theory (Fuchs, N. A. (1963). On the Stationary Charge Distribution on Aerosol Particles in a Bipolar Ionic Atmosphere. Geophys. Pura. Appl., 56:185-193). Good agreement between predicted and experimental extrinsic charging efficiencies was obtained. Numerical results showed the advantage of using sheath air to minimize charged particle loss and indicated the location where major charged particle loss occurred. It is expected that the present model can be used to facilitate the design of more efficient corona-wire unipolar charger in the future.