3D clogging modeling of polyurethane nanofiber based filters by ultrafine aerosol particles

Abstract

Realistic SEM image based 3D filter model, transition/free molecular flow regime, Brownian diffusion, aerodynamic slip, particle-fiber and particle-particle interactions together with a novel Euclidian distance map based methodology to calculate the pressure drop has been utilized for a polyurethane nanofiber based filter prepared via electrospinning process in order to more deeply understand the filter clogging, filtration cake formation and its role on the final filter efficiency. By using proposed theoretical approach for the 3D filter clogging modeling, it has been found that the decrease in the fiber-particle friction coefficient leads to higher pressure drop, lower filtration efficiency, lower quality factor and lower quality factor sensitivity to the increased collected particle mass due to more deeper particle penetration in the filter and creation of smaller pores.