Simulation of Bimodal Fiber Distribution Effect on Transient Accumulation of Particles During Filtration

Modeling has become phenomenal in developing new products. In the case of filters, one of the most applied procedures is via the construction of idealized physical computational models bearing close semblance to real filter media. It is upon these that multi-physics tools were applied to analyze the flow of fluid and the resulting typical performance parameters. In this work, two 3D filter membranes were constructed with MATLAB; one had a random distribution of unimodal nanofibers, and the other, a novel modification, formed a bimodal distribution; both of them had similar dimensions and solid volume fractions. A comparison of their performance in a dust-loading environment was made by using computational fluid dynamic-discrete element method (CFD-DEM) coupling technique in STAR-CCM+. It was found that the bimodal nanofiber membrane greatly improved the particle capture efficiency. Whereas this increased the pressure drop, the gain was not too significant. Thus, overall, the results of the figure of merit proved that adopting a bimodal formation improved the filter’s quality.