Keyword: Electro-Hydrodynamic (EHD), Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP).

In the Advanced Thermal and Environmental Research (ATESR) Lab, my project is to recreate at bench-scale the interaction between an electrical field and a fluid.

This work finds application in an industrial context, addressing the question, "How does the strong electric field within an ESP influence upstream mixing of powdered sorbents injected into the flue gas?"  The results will help predict the in-flight mercury removal performance of sorbents injected into the flue gas flow upstream of an ESP. To do this, I am using acetone, with its fluorescent properties, as a fluid tracer. I am building an experimental device in which to study these fluid mixing phenomena.  

I am designing an experimental apparatus representing at reduced scale the entrance to a plate-wire ESP. Using acetone as a tracer in the air flow, planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) will be used to observe how - and how far upstream - the electric field induces mixing within the airflow entering the ESP. The objective of my research is to obtain experimental data but could also include numerical simulation of the flow.