VORTICITY FORMATION IN AN ELASTOSTATIC PRECIPITATOR

A geometry bounded by two plane plates and with corona wires in the ce nter plane is considered. At conditions with low gas velocity and high electrical current (high electrohydrodynamic number) vortices form be tween the wires and the plates. They are generated by the volume force resulting from the electric field multiplied by the space charge dens ity. The time evolution is compared between a numerical finite volume Euler method and an integral approximation. For typical arrangements t he time constant is of the order of 0.1s.