Simulation of Electrostatic Rotary Bell Spray Painting in Automotive Paint Shops

Abstract

A new framework for simulation of electrostatic spray painting is proposed based on novel algorithms for coupled simulations of air flow, electromagnetic fields and paint droplets. Particularly important for the computational efficiency is the Navier-Stokes solver. The incompressible solver is based on a finite volume discretization on a dynamic Cartesian octree grid and unique immersed boundary methods are used to model the presence of objects in the fluid. This enables modeling of moving objects at virtually no additional computational cost, and greatly simplifies preprocessing by avoiding the cumbersome generation of a body conforming mesh. To validate the simulation framework an extensive measurement campaign has been performed. Several test plates and car fenders were painted with different process conditions and robot paths. The same cases were then simulated and overall the agreement between simulations and experiments are remarkably good. The very efficient implementation gives a major improvement of computational speed compared to other approaches and makes it possible to simulate spray painting of a full car in just a few hours on a standard computer.

Effects of automotive paint spray technology on the paint transfer efficiency – a review

“…Mark et al 111 developed a numerical method to solve the Navier–Stokes equations associated with flow by considering that the air flow was coupled with the electrostatic field and charged droplets, and the target was dynamic. Experimental investigations were also performed, on both plate and car fenders, and their numerical simulations validated.…”

A domain decomposition method for three species modeling of multi-electrode negative corona discharge – With applications to electrostatic precipitators

“…The simulations of particle collection properties are performed using the in-house multi-physics solver IBOFlow [16,17]. In these simulations, we include the coupling between the air flow and the electrostatic problem through the secondary electrohydrodynamic force.…”

“…Negative corona discharge phenomena occur in a range of industrial applications, including spray painting in the automotive industry, ozone generation, and cleaning of toxic gases [6,8,11,12,14,16,26]. These applications are commonly treated using a one species model for the corona phenomenon.…”

Spatial Positioning and Operating Parameters of a Rotary Bell Sprayer: 3D Mapping of Droplet Size Distributions

“…Researchers have performed studies concerning the effect of the speed of the rotary bell atomizers on the evaporation of the fluid [5], shaping air holes effect on atomization for pneumatic atomizers [6], the transfer process for electrostatic spray coating [7], and non-Newtonian liquid with shear-thinning behavior [8]. Furthermore, a substantial amount of research has concentrated on simulating the effects of operating parameters on the performance of electrostatic rotary bell sprayers (ERBS) [9][10][11][12][13]. However, due to the limitations of using only computational techniques, it is preferred that experimental methods in conjunction with computational simulations be used to more fully understand the complex dynamics of spray processes [14,15].…”