Mathematical Model of the Flow in a Nanofiber/Microfiber Mixed Aerosol Filter

A new mathematical model of an aerosol fibrous filter, composed of a variety of nano- and microfibers, is developed. The combination of nano- and microfibers in a mixed-type filter provides a higher overall quality factor compared with filters with monodisperse fibers. In this paper, we propose a mathematical model of the flow of an incompressible fluid in a porous region consisting of a set of cylinders of various diameters in the range of nano- and micrometers to describe a mixed-type aerosol filter. The flow domain is a rectangular periodic cell with one microfiber and many nanofibers. The motion of the carrier medium is described by the boundary value problem in Stokes flow approximation with the no-slip boundary condition for microfibers and the slip condition for nanofibers. The boundary element method taking into account the slip and non-slip conditions is developed. The calculated velocity field, streamlines, vorticity distribution, and drag of separate fibers and the entire periodic cell are presented. Numerical results for the drag force of the porous medium of a mixed-type filter for the various ratios of mass proportion of nano- and microfibers, porosity, and filtration velocity are presented. The obtained results are compared with the analytical formulas based on the approximate theory of filtration of bimodal filters and with known experimental data. It is shown that with an increase in the mass fraction of nanofibers, the total drag force of the cell increases, while the relative contribution of nanofibers to the total drag force tends toward the value that is less than unity. An approximate analytical formula for the drag coefficient of a mixed aerosol filter is derived. The developed flow model and analytical formulas allow for estimating the aerodynamic drag of a mixed filter composed by nano- and microfibers.