Multiphysics eulerian-lagrangian electrostatic particle spray- And deposition model for OpenFOAM® and KaleidoSim® cloud-platform

Abstract

A finite volume based Eulerian-Lagrangian model has been created within OpenFOAM® in order to predict the behavior of particle clouds as well as particle deposition thicknesses on substrates under the influence of electrostatic effects. The model resolves close to electrode effects as well as phenomena within the entire deposition chamber. It considers fluid dynamic effects, particle inertia, gravity, electric- as well as mechanic particle-particle interaction, corona formation, dynamic particle charging mechanisms, and coupling of particle motion to Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) based flow simulations. Resulting deposition pattern predictions were experimentally validated. It is demonstrated qualitatively and quantitatively that the measured deposition thicknesses and patterns vary by; i) applied voltage, ii) airflow rate, pistol-substrate iii) distance and iv) angle. Furthermore, the software has been prepared such that it works on the cloud computing software KaleidoSim®, which enables the simultaneous browser-based running of hundreds of cases for large parameter studies.