cae case studies: ESP CFD analysis

The client, an India-based global solution provider in energy and environment engineering, is involved in the design and manufacture of Electrostatic Precipitators (ESPs). ESPs are commonly utilized for fly ash reduction and are designed to remove particulate emissions by treating the air with an electrical charge to capture the suspended particles in the gas flow. The particles are collected on an array of charged parallel plates situated above collection hoppers in the ESP box.

Even though the flow regime is considered turbulent throughout the precipitator box, ESPs operate under the premise of relative uniform flow. The ESP as a pollution control device is designed to treat the gases that flow through its plates within certain velocity criteria in every portion of the treatment cross section. If velocities exceed this criteria range in any one area, the ESP will not have a chance to effectively treat the gas through that area. The result is an increase in particulate emissions. Although increasing the size of the ESP box is one method to reduce overall gas velocities, practical and financial considerations put limits on the size of box. It is thus imperative to have an optimum box size that satisfies the given velocity criteria at every point at its cross-section.

With the client-provided 2D drawings of the ESP as inputs, Alcyon

• Created the 3D model of the ESP assembly.
• Conducted Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis of the initial assembly, using the design flow boundary conditions.
• Evaluated the results using the criteria supplied by the client.
• Based on the results, the client and Alcyon jointly arrived at improvements in the ESP design. Alcyon then iteratively analyzed these designs until the client was satisfied with the flow pattern within the ESP.

Velocity plot of plate region from CFD results


Pressure plot from CFD results