Effect of gravity on coalescence with and without drainage structure in horizontal & vertical orientation S.U. Patel and G.G. Chase 1 ABSTRACT Aerosol filtration is carried out to separate liquid particles from the air stream. The focus of this project is to study the effect of gravity on filtration and separation. Gravity will enhance the drainage of liquid from the filter media increasing the removal efficiency and reducing pressure drop. It will be studied by performing the coalescence filtration experiment by positioning the disc shaped filters in vertical direction relative to air stream. Aerosol filtration, being an economic unit operation has many industrial applications like dehumidification, automobile filters; exhaust filters which separates particles as well as liquid droplets from air source which is important in concern with environmental aspect. This work will be done to test the performance of disc shaped filters under gravitational field by positioning them vertically to air flow. The performance of disc shaped filters with horizontal position has been studied to evaluate the quality factor, pressure drop and filtration efficiency. A similar approach will be adopted for study the effect of gravity. OBJECTIVE The hypothesis of the work is to study the effect of gravitational force on coalescence filtration and separation. DRAINAGE CHANNEL DRANAIGE CHANNEL EXPERIMENTS RESULTS Horizontal Orientation Polypropylene mesh (500 micron pore opening, 610 filament thickness) Both end drainage Inclined drainage Outlet drainage No drainage Inlet drainage Middle drainage Outlet drainage Vertical Orientation No drainage Inlet drainage Middle drainage Both end drainage Inclined drainage Microscopic image of drainage structure IMPROVEMENT IN QUALITY FACTOR Sr. No. Case study Quality factor (KPa-1) Horizontal Vertical 1. No Drainage Channel 0.180 0.481 2. Inlet Drainage Channel 0.406 0.173 3. Middle Drainage Channel 0.187 0.090 4. Outlet Drainage Channel 0.364 0.343 5. Both End Drainage Channel 0.424 0.223 167 % 125 % 102 % 135 % HYPOTHESIS OF WORK INCLINED ANGLE Sr. No. Case Study Quality factor (KPa-1) Horizontal Vertical 1. 00 0.135 0.155 2. 300 0.280 0.167 3. 450 0.774 0.052 4. 600 0.138 0.118 5. 750 0.262 0.124 Gas flow out Gas flow in Drainage 473 % 94 % Higher entrainment Less drainage Increased Pressure Drop Decrease in Quality Factor 107 % Gas flow in Gas flow out Drainage Drainage structure OPTIMUM BED LENGTH Sr. No. Bed length (inch) Efficiency (%) Delta P (KPa) Quality factor (KPa-1) 1. 0.25 45.36 6.34 0.073 2. 0.3 59.10 5.84 0.159 3. 0.375 80.77 6.23 0.299 4. 0.45 95.35 9.16 0.348 5. 0.5 97.42 9.58 0.418 Less entrainment More drainage Reduced Pressure Drop Increase in Quality Factor HORIZONTAL FLOW SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS WORK Developed recipe to make thick filter samples using Megasol binder. Made media and tested to find porosity, permeability and hardness of sample. Performed coalescence experiments by positioning the filter medium in horizontal and vertical direction to air flow. Performed coalescence experiments with and without drainage channel by positioning the filter medium in horizontal and vertical direction to air flow. Compared the results in terms of coalescence efficiency, pressure drop and quality factor for the filters with and without drainage channels in horizontal and vertical orientation. Performed coalescence experiment with filter medium equipped with three drainage channels at different angles in horizontal orientation and vertical orientation. FUTURE WORK Use nonwoven microglass and polypropylene fiber-mats as drainage channel. Develop recipe for making composite filter media. Test composite filter media to obtain the optimum drainage layer thickness Develop model to predict pressure drop, filter efficiency and quality factor. Compare experimental results with prediction. Less entrainment More drainage, bigger drops drains faster Reduced Pressure Drop Increase in Quality Factor VERTICAL FLOW