Application of deep learning neural networks for the analysis of fluid-particle dynamics in fibrous filters

Abstract

A novel hybrid data-driven framework was introduced in this study for the prediction of fluid-particle dynamics of submicron particles under hydrodynamic and Brownian forces in fibrous filters. The distribution of flow parameters was predicted by a high-resolution flow surrogate model based on a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) coupled with a Lagrangian particle tracking method based on the discrete phase model (DPM). The CNN-DPM model was applied to a group of several nonuniformly distributed fibers to calculate filtration efficiency. For CNN training, ground-truth data were obtained using a two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for laminar incompressible flow. A simulation speedup of three orders of magnitude was obtained by CNN for predicting the velocity components and static pressure distribution within an error range of ±10%. The generalizability of CNN model was also confirmed for overlapped irregular fiber shapes and porosities out of the range of the training dataset with deviations in a range of ±20% in comparison with CFD results. The collection efficiency by CNN-DPM for small particle diameters with dp≤0.3μm was overestimated by approximately 3 % while agreeing well with CFD-DPM for larger particles. The errors of flow velocity predictions by CNN near the fibers added more randomness to the particle motion which was combined with the random Brownian motion of particles, consequently increasing the probability of the small particle hit number and filtration efficiency. The overall acceptable accuracy of the CNN-DPM was confirmed, which is suitable for fibrous filter design and optimization purposes that require thousands of simulations.