Influence of the corona-wire diameter and length on corona discharge characteristics of a cylindrical tri-axial charger

Abstract In this paper, the corona discharge characterization in terms of current–voltage relationships of a unipolar cylindrical tri-axial charger on the effects of the corona wire diameter and length have been experimentally studied and discussed. A commercial computational fluid dynamics software package, COMSOL Multiphysics™, was used to predict the electric field distribution in the ion generation and charging zones of the charger and the ion penetration through the perforated screen opening on the inner electrode of the charger. It was found from experimental results that both positive and negative charging currents in the charging zone of the charger increased with increasing corona and ion-driving voltages. At the same corona and ion-driving voltages, both positive and negative coronas were decreased with increasing diameter of the corona-wire. Compared with the corona-wire of 22 mm in length, the magnitude of both positive and negative charging currents were markedly higher for corona-wire of 11 mm in length at the same corona voltage. It was found that the charging currents for negative coronas were about 1.2 times higher than those positive coronas at the same corona and ion-driving voltages. Numerical results of the electric field distribution and the ion and charged particles migrations in the discharge and charging zones of the charger is correlated to have the same direction with the experimental results of the current–voltage relationships. Also, this can be used to guidance in describing the electric field distribution and the behavior of ion and charged particle trajectories that cannot be seen from experiments in order to improve the applicably design and refinement of a unipolar cylindrical tri-axial charger.