Study on the Influence of the Aerodynamic Performance of Electric Field Manipulator: Experimental and Modelling Research

Particulate matter (PM) emissions are common in technological processes, and effective mitigation requires gas pre-treatment before high-efficiency filtration to reduce fine and ultrafine PM that are particularly dangerous to the human health. This study evaluates a multichannel electric field manipulator (agglomerator) as a flow pre-treatment stage and investigates the aerodynamic conditions that govern particle–gas flow distribution and variation in trajectories and dynamics at different flow rates. These factors provide meaningful assumptions about the possible behavior of particles in the flow, and they are critical for optimizing an agglomeration and its intensity. Such phenomena can have an impact on the probability of agglomeration in the manipulator channels, i.e., the adherence of small particles into larger ones, and this allows for improving the design and operating conditions of the apparatus. Gas flow velocities and pressure were analyzed experimentally at various cross-sectional points in the inlet and outlet ducts at inflow rates of 3.4 L/s and 50 L/s. The static inlet pressure of the manipulator ranged from 8 Pa to 178 Pa. This study provides new insights into flow pre-treatment using the electric field mechanism in a multichannel modular apparatus and provides a reasonable understanding of the necessary characteristics of gas flow distribution to support subsequent improvements targeting higher agglomeration.