Modeling and simulation of the effect of pressure on the corona discharge for wire-plane configuration

This paper aims to analyse the behavior of dc corona discharge in wire-to-plane electrostatic precipitators (ESP) depending on the pressure. Current-voltage curves are analyzed particularly. Experimental results show that discharge current is strongly affected by the pressure for a given atmospheric condition. Changing the values pressure does not only changes the property of the gas but also affects the corona onset conditions and ion mobility. The finite-element method is used to solve Poisson´s equation and a modified method of characteristics is used to satisfy the current continuity condition. The two methods are repeated iteratively to obtain a selfconsistent solution of the describing equations. We used the model which separates the corona in two distinct regions. Comparing the computed results with previously obtained experimental and calculated values tests the effectiveness of this approach. The agreement with experimental results is found to be satisfactory.