Studies on the electrical characteristics of a thermal power plant Electrostatic Precipitator

An Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP) is the most efficient device to capture fly ash. The performance of an ESP can be determined by Voltage-Current (V-I) characteristics which will reflect upon the collection efficiency. In this paper, a new approach based on Finite Difference Method (FDM) has been utilized for the simulation of V-I characteristics of an ESP under clean air and dust loaded conditions. The present simulation work with FDM is computationally simple as one grid is employed for solving the Poisson's equation and Current continuity equation which gives sufficiently accurate results. Further, V-I measurements for one of the ESPs were conducted by the author at Raichur Thermal Power Station (RTPS) in India and the simulated results were compared with the measured ones. The results for clean air were validated with the published experimental data and the present method has been compared with the other methods.