Issue |
E3S Web Conf.
Volume 99, 2019
Central Asian DUst Conference (CADUC 2019)
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 02011 | |
Number of page(s) | 4 | |
Section | Dust properties at transport | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20199902011 | |
Published online | 18 June 2019 |
Electrostatic charging of wind-blown dust and implications on dust transport
1
Case Western Reserve University, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA
2
Key Laboratory of Mechanics on Disaster and Environments in Western China, Ministry of Education of China, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China
It is well known that electric fields occur in wind-blown dust, due to the triboelectric charging of particles as they collide. Triboelectric charging, or contact electrification, is a poorly understood and complex phenomenon. It is especially important in granular systems, as the high surface-to-volume ratio can lead to the build-up of large amounts of charge. A particularly surprising effect, which is important in dust systems, is that charge transfer occurs in systems of a single composition, such that there is a particle-size dependent polarity of the particles. Here, we use a combined experimental and theoretical approach to elucidate the electrostatic charging that occurs during dust storms, and the effects of this electrostatic charging on dust transport. We create laboratory-scale wind-blown dust systems, and study the electrostatic charging. We find that larger particles tend to charge positive and to stay at or near the sand bed, while smaller particles tend to charge negative and get lofted to higher elevations. This self-segregating of charged particles would lead to electric fields within a dust storm. Our results show that electric fields then increase the dust transport by more easily lofting charged particles.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2019
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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