Electrostatic precipitator

Claim 1

Electrostatic precipitator apparatus operable to capture particles borne by gas flowing in a selected direction through said apparatus, comprising mutually opposed first and second collector plate electrodes mounted in spaced parallel relationship defining therebetween a laterally confined path for said directional flow of gas through the apparatus, said collector plate electrodes being of similarly corrugated surface form arranged with the alternate smoothly curved crests and valleys of each in direct opposition to the corresponding crests and valleys of the other and longitudinally extending substantially at right angles to the direction of said gas flow between said collector plate electrodes, an array of parallel successively spaced discharge filament electrodes mounted midway between and extending in parallel relationship with said collector plate electrodes with the individual discharge filament electrodes extending centrally lengthwise of individual divergence-convergence spaces defined by and between opposing valleys of said collector plate electrodes, the corrugation wave length of said collector plate electrodes in relation to the corrugation height and mean spacing between said collector plate electrodes being such as to place the discharge filament electrodes at approximately uniform spacing from the valley-defining surfaces respectively adjacent thereto, and means for applying unidirectional voltage to said electrodes including connections of one polarity to said collector plate electrodes in common and connections of opposite polarity to said discharge filament electrodes in common, the mean spacing between said mutually opposing collector plate electrodes being substantially one-half to one times the corrugation wave length of said collector plate electrodes and the height of said corrugations between valley and crest peaks being between substantially ten and twenty percent of said wave length.