Application of CFD Methods for the Simulation of the Flow Through a Filter in Dependency of the Operating Time

Filters are playing an important role in process engineering, chemical engineering as well as in many machineries like gas turbines, air conditioners or cars. At present it is possible to calculate the flow through a filter and predict the average pressure loss of the flow for the initial state of the filter medium. In the present paper a pragmatic procedure is introduced, which makes it possible to consider the deposition of dust onto the filter and the influence on the flow implied with it. For the application of the method the commercial CFD-Code FLUENT is used. The reasonability of the concept is shown by regarding the characteristic time scales of the flow and the dust deposition. The method is used to simulate the flow through a filter within a quadratic tube in dependence of the operating time.