Determination and simulation of the equivalent circuits of electrostatic precipitators

Corona field in the usual electrostatic precipitator is energized by half- or full-wave rectifiers operating at line frequencies, the rectifier output being filtered by the capacitance of the precipitator itself. Analysis of the equivalent circuits involved is somewhat complicated. The rectifier, by nature nonlinear, must be considered as well as the nonlinear electrical characteristic of the corona field. Hence, only certain easily measured quantities, such as average current and voltage, customarily enter into a determination of performance of such circuits.