CHARGING AND DISCHARGING OF PARTICLES ON THE LOW-POTENTIAL ELECTRODE UNDER BIPOLAR CORONA CONDITIONS

In this work, the process of charging and discharging of aerosol parti cles on the surface of a low-potential electrode and their behaviour d epending on the charge that they have are investigated under bipolar c orona conditions. A general expression to characterize the kinetics of charging of these particles is developed so that this expression yiel ds many of the special equations that have been reported in the litera ture and are valid under certain conditions. It is found that the inte nsity of the corona discharging field affects both the amount of stabl e charge on the particle and its charging time; in general, the time c onstant for discharging and the coefficient of bipolarity determine th e amount of stable charge. The obtained results indicate that, under s uitable conditions, use of a bipolar corona field can be an alternativ e technique for cleaning and refining impure aerosol mixtures for desi red purposes.