Pressure drop model for nanostructured deposits

Abstract

This study presents a new pressure drop model developed for cakes composed of nanostructured particles. The cake structure is understood as a tangle of chains composed by juxtaposed primary particles with (aggregates) or without (agglomerates) a partial overlap. Since cake porosity is one of the main parameters determining aeraulic resistance, an experiment protocol based on the changes in deposit thickness as a function of the cake mass per surface area has been developed to accurately determine this parameter. To this end, the pressure drop and the porosity of the cakes created by the filtration of carbon nanoparticles aggregates and agglomerates on PTFE membrane were measured. The aggregate and agglomerate count median mobility diameters range from 91nm to 170nm and from 48nm to 62nm, respectively. The associated Peclet numbers range from 0.19 to 53 for filtration velocities of 0.01, 0.05 and 0.09m/s. Initial experimental results indicate that the porosity of the cakes ranges from 0.94 to 0.984 in correlation with the Peclet number of the aggregates or agglomerates. The agreement between experimental results and the pressure drop model is fairly good. Of the experimental values, 95% are within plus or minus 25% of the theoretical value.