Implementation of Fuchs' model of ion diffusion charging of nanoparticles considering the electron contribution in dc-corona chargers in high charge densities

A 1D corona discharge model coupled to a 2D-axisymmetric particle charging model are proposed in this paper to simulate nanoparticle charging process within a wire-tube air corona discharge subjected to an applied positive or negative dc voltage. This 1D discharge model provides the distribution of the electric field, the air ion and free electron concentrations for the 2D charging model which in turn solves the spatial distributions of the various charged nanoparticles within the tube. This 2D charging model takes into account the effect of electrons, on the basis of Fuchs’ law usually employed in the literature for modelling of ion diffusion nanoparticle charging. The current approach is valid when the concentration of nanoparticles is much lower than the concentration of ionic species in the gas. Numerical results show that the positive air ions can be assumed to be solely responsible for the charging process in a positive air corona charger, while both the negative air ions and electrons play an important role in the negative charging. At high negative charge intensities, the effect of the electrons becomes appreciable due to their high conduction velocity. In general, the numerical results obtained are in good agreement with the experimental data reported in the literature. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)