Electric field in a hexagonal cylinder electrostatic precipitator

A conformal mapping method is used for the theoretical determination of the electric field intensity in an electrostatic precipitator module consisting of a hexagonal-cylinder outer envelope and a thin, stressed, centered electrode. The interior of the hexagonal cylinder (its cross section) is mapped conformally onto the interior of a unit circle using a suitable Schwarz-Christoffel transformation. Lines of constant potential inside the hexagonal enclosure are obtained as the images of constant potential circles within the unit circle. The field configuration supported by the cylindrical precipitator are compared to those of circular-cylinder and planar structures with regard to the predictability of performance, efficiency, ease of scaling, and field homogeneity. The technique used offers simplicity as its main advantage. The results suggest that the hexagonal cylinder precipitator combines the advantages of the circular-cylinder and the planar structures. In addition, the hexagonal module has good mechanical properties and is inexpensive. A precipitator of a large capacity and predictable behavior can be created out of a number of identical hexagonal modules.<>