An Overview on Micro- and Macro-Scale Modeling of Aerosol Filters, 2011 Innovative Nonwovens Conference

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This presentation reviews the current state of the art in conducting computationally-inexpensive simulations of aerosol filtration via fibrous filters. Our review starts with a description of the available computational methods for conducting a microscale simulation of particle filtration via fibrous media, and continues to discuss how the information generated via microscale simulations can be incorporated in a macroscale model that can be used to optimize the actual dimensions (e.g., pleat geometry) of an air filter. In particular, we discuss the effects of fiber orientation and fiber diameter distributions on pressure drop and particle collection efficiency of a filter medium. This is accomplished by generating 3-D fibrous structures resembling the internal geometry of a fibrous mat, and numerically solving the governing equations of air and particle flow in the void space between the fibers. We then feed the media’s filtration properties into a macroscale model that treats the filter medium as a lumped structure but allows for simulating the actual dimensions of the filter. The dual-scale simulation method presented in this work allows design and optimization of aerosol filters with an affordable CPU time.