F. Strauß, J. Hoferer, V. Heuveline, G. Kasper

Chemical Engineering & Technology, 2009, 32/2, 820-825

The prediction of the flow behaviour and pressure drop in fibrous filter media is challenging due to the complexity of the non-uniform fiber structure. Numerical calculation tools can give an important contribution to pressure drop determination for inhomogeneous filter structures. We consider a numerical solution approach based on the finite element method to simulate 2D and 3D filter structures. As numerical examples we investigate computer designed homogeneous and inhomogeneous 2D cases where our numerical approach is validated by analytical models. Furthermore, we show the capability of the numerical method to simulate real 3D structures corresponding to more than 25 million degrees of freedom of the related algebraic system. The involved large systems require the use of dedicated techniques related to high performance computing.