Journal Article
Numerical Simulation of the Electrostatic Coating Process: the Effect of Applied Voltage, Droplet Charge and Size on the Coating Efficiency
2021-03-02
2021-01-0022
Electrostatic Rotary Bell Sprayers (ERBSs) have been widely used in the painting industry, especially in the automotive and aerospace industries, due to their superior performance. The effects of the applied voltage and paint droplet charge values on the spraying pattern and coating Transfer Efficiency (TE) in the ERBS, including a high-voltage ring for spray cloud control, have been studied numerically in a wide range of droplet size distribution. A 3D Eulerian-Lagrangian numerical analysis is implemented under the framework of the OpenFOAM package. The fluid dynamics of turbulence, primary and secondary breakup procedures are modeled using a large eddy simulation (LES) model, Rosin-Rammler distribution, and modified TAB approach, respectively.