Mathematical Modeling of Fibrous Filters for Diesel Particulates – Theory and Experiment

A mathematical model has been developed to describe the initial performance of fibrous filters for diesel exhaust particulates. In addition to the basic mechanisms of particle deposition on fibers, the size distributions of both diesel particulates and fibers were incorporated into the model in order to account for the polydispersity of particles and fibers encountered in realistic diesel particulate filters. Filtration experiments with a single-cylinder diesel engine were conducted to test the validity of the model, and the calculated filter efficiencies agreed very well with the experimental data.