Charge limits in corona charging of distorted liquid droplets

The efficiency of electrostatic painting depends strongly on the amount of charge on a single paint droplet. The saturation corona charging for a spherical droplet has been theoretically estimated by Pauthenier. However, in many industrial and agricultural applications, the droplets being charged become substantially distorted. The results of numerical estimations of the charge limit, due to a DC corona discharge, on conducting droplets distorted by an electric field are presented. The finite-element method (FEM) and the separation-of-variables method for the Laplace equation have been used as modeling tools. In general it is found that a distorted droplet can exceed the Pauthenier charge limit