Performance characteristics of air intake pleated panel filters for internal combustion engines in a two-stage configuration

Previous numerical studies that have used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experimental software to address the effects of the geometric parameters of pleats on the pressure drop and air flow rate through a fibrous filter are analyzed. The analysis establishes that using a test dust with gradually smaller particle sizes (10, 5, and 1 mu m) results in a more intense increase in the filter pressure drop, thus decreasing the service life of the filter. The benefits of using a multicyclone as the first stage of air filtration are discussed. Selecting the air filter by determining the active surface of the filter medium A(c) based on the allowable filtration rate is not sufficient; to select the filter medium of a motor vehicle air filter, the dust mass retained per unit of filtration area (mass loading of dust k(m)) must be known for a specific allowable pressure drop Delta p(fdop). New methods and conditions for determining the mass loading of dust k(m) for filter paper and non-woven fabric in single-stage and two-stage filtration systems are presented. The characteristics of the separation efficiency and filtration performance as well as the pressure drop of a filter set comprising a single cyclone and a filter element with a specific filter medium surface are determined. The effects of the particle size distribution of the dust in the air downstream of the cyclone on the mass loading of dust k(m) of the filter paper and non-woven fabric in a two-stage filtration system are presented. The mileage of a truck fitted with a single-stage or two-stage filtration system in a "multicyclone-panel filter" configuration is estimated based on the calculated mass loading of dust k(m) of the filter paper and non-woven fabric. (c) 2018 American Association for Aerosol Research