Three-dimensional numerical studies on the effect of the particle charge to mass ratio distribution in the electrostatic coating process

Charge to mass ratio is a crucial parameter that governs the behavior of particle trajectories in a charged cloud of particles. The complex nature of the charging process limits our ability to accurately determine the charging level when particles of varying size are present. Using a numerical approach, it is possible, however, to take into account predefined values for this parameter. In this paper, the average charge to mass ratio and the distribution of the charge to mass ratio in the coating of a flat target were systematically varied to demonstrate their effect on the motion of the charged particles. The results show that the transfer efficiency increases as the average charge to mass ratio increases. It was found that the transfer efficiency is a weak function of the average particle size in the range tested and that it increases as the width of the size distribution increases. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.