Numerical investigation on dust-loaded fibrous filters

Abstract

To investigate the pressure drop and capture efficiency of fibrous filters, the fluid flow through dust-loaded filter is simulated using the lattice Boltzmann method. The filter is modeled by two-dimensional fibers with the same or different diameter sizes which are arranged randomly. The Lagrangian approach is used to track the particles, which are large enough to ignore Brownian diffusion. The evolution of filter's geometry due to the formation of the deposition dendrites is also considered. Effects of the structural parameters of the filter such as solid volume fraction and distribution of fiber's diameter size, operating parameters like the Reynolds number of the flow and particle's features such as Stokes number and interception coefficient on the pressure drop and capture efficiency are investigated. The simulations show that the rear fibers play a more important role in capturing smaller particles, in comparison with the larger ones in this work, especially at the initial filtration stages. The Stokes number and interception coefficient are the effective parameters for the dustloaded filter performance while the Reynolds number (at low values) cannot exclusively change the filtering condition.