The process of charging aerosol particles in an electric field,with allowance for diffusion of the ions

A study is made of the charging of highly conducting particles in disperse media. To this end, in the case of a small volume concentration of particles, there is a study, within the framework of electrohydrodynamics 1, 2], of the charging of an ideally conducting spherical particle in a unipolar charged gas. It is assumed that the particle is at rest relative to the gas, and its size and ion concentration are fairly small, so that the electric self-field of the ions may be neglected. A computer was used to calculate the dependences of the charging current on the charge of the particle for various values of the external electric field intensity. A comparison is made with the experimental data on the charging of particles 3].Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 177–180, January–February, 1986.The author wishes to express his gratitude to L. T. Chernyi for formulating the problem, and to V. V. Gogosov for a useful discussion of the results.