ESPM: an advanced electrostatic precipitator model

A number of incremental improvements in electrostatic precipitator modeling have been made. The improvements have been in particle charging, particle collection, electrical wave form effects, ion mobility, space charge interactions, rapping and nonrapping reentrainment, and back corona effects. These have been incorporated into a single computer model, ESPM, at the Electric Power Research Institute. The resulting program has been compared with measured performance of several ESPs with very good results and has been used to better understand phenomena that occur in precipitators. It brings a fully predictive ESP model closer to realization. The new model improvements are described in detail, since many have not been published. The overall structure of the program is also described, because it closely simulates the operation of an ESP and contributes to the improved performance of the model