Elsevier

Filtration + Separation

Volume 53, Issue 5, September–October 2016, Pages 14-16
Filtration + Separation

Technology focus
Research & development
Customized solvers optimize filtration device design

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0015-1882(16)30205-1Get rights and content

With customized solvers, computational flow simulations can be used to optimize the design of filtration devices. This article considers the complex interactions of clogging filters and the changing flow field. With the transport and deposit of solid particles in arbitrary gas or liquid flows, a wide range of applications is covered.

Section snippets

Flow shift in filters

In many processes with filters, similar problems and issues for the interpretation occur, despite very different areas of use. For example, interactions between the load of the filter and the transporting flow have to be expected, both in the filtration of floating particles from water and in dust separation in large filter plants. For an unloaded, clean filter, particles preferentially deposit on the regions of the filters that have particularly strong flow through at the beginning.

If,

Simulation of filter applications

In the field of flow simulations, particle flows are often described with so-called Euler-Lagrange approaches. Here, the continuous flow is described with a stationary Euler approach using a locally fixed coordinate system, while the particle movement is calculated with a Lagrangian model with co-moving reference frames for each particle. The latter approach takes into account the respective impacting forces, such as resistance, inertia or gravity. Therefore, within the framework of the filter

Tool verification and application cases

For the development of the simulation tool, comprehensive extensions were carried out, based on the CFD toolbox OpenFOAM. Special boundary conditions were created that enable a deposition of particles on region elements and an increase of the resistance for the continuous flow based on Darcy or Forchheimer approaches. A coupling procedure between particle transport and continuous flow was developed that enables a particularly computationally efficient particle transport and at the same time

Universally applicable

The modelling with an Euler-Lagrange approach allows a broad use of the simulation tool, both for gas and fluid systems with solid particles. Extensions on additional force fields that affect the particles and can influence their trajectories are easily implemented. The implementation based on Open Source solvers makes the calculation tool particularly cost-efficient and can flexibly be used on different machines because no licence costs or licence management systems for the solution are

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