2010-Simulation of Particulate Air Filtration using Capillary-channel Polymer Filter Media

Simulation of Particulate Air Filtration using Capillary-channel Polymer Filter Media

Christopher Cox, Clemson University


Introduction

The ultimate goal of this effort is to develop a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter, especially for chemical biological radiological (CBR) applications, which has a 50% lower pressure drop compared to current CBR filters.
The use of capillary-channel polymer (C-CP) fibers in filtration and separations applications is becoming more prevalent due to the unique properties of these fibers. In a denier-for-denier match with round fibers, C-CP fibers have around 2.5 times the surface area.
In this paper, we present simulations which enable comparisons of C-CP and round-fiber filtration.
From the simulation results we calculate single fiber efficiency (SFE) and figure of merit (FOM), as defined in, for both types of filters. A comparison with experimental results is also provided.