A simulation method is applied to calculate particle dynamics in electrostatic precipitators as characterised by particle flux density and concentration profiles in arbitrary channel cross-sections and flux density profiles of dust precipitated at the collecting electrodes (CEs). A simple statistical model allows the determination of confidence intervals for flux profiles. First, a 'standard case' considering full coupling of all physical phenomena occurring in this problem, i.e., electric field, flow field and particle dynamics is simulated. Subsequently, this standard case is compared to simulations with one quantity (e.g., electric field strength, turbulence intensity) substituted by a mean value which is homogeneously distributed in the precipitation zone. This reveals the relevance of the various physical phenomena: It turned out that the secondary flows had only a minor influence on the overall particle precipitation although they cause some 'patterning' of local precipitation. Turbulence inhomogeneity shows a stronger effect on particle dynamics. However, the electric field appears to be by far the most important quantity in simulating particle dynamics. Consequently, in order to achieve most reasonable simulation results for a given numerical effort most attention has to be devoted to field calculations, including correct boundary conditions. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.