Eulerian formulation for the triboelectric charging of polydisperse powder flows

Abstract: We propose an Eulerian formulation for the triboelectric charging of powder flows. Recently, continuum descriptions of the charging of monodisperse and bidisperse powder appeared. Now, we propose the first Eulerian formulation for this type of flows that can fully account for polydisperse particle size distributions. To this end, the joint particle size, velocity, and charge distribution function is solved through the direct quadrature method of moments. The newly established approach includes the uptake of electrostatic charge by the particles when contacting a solid wall and the exchange of charge in-between particles during collisions. The electrostatic field induced by the charge of the particles and the drag forces of the surrounding gas affect the particle dynamics. Test cases of two-dimensional steady channel flows demonstrate the charging of the flow from the walls towards the center and in downstream direction. Further, the method predicts the effect of variations of the particle size and initial velocity distribution and the charge diffusion coefficient. The ability to handle polydispersity is a step towards the simulation of the electric charge build-up of real powder flows in full-scale technical applications.