Prediction of pressure drop in adsorption filter using friction factor correlations for packed bed

Abstract

Adsorption filters in air cleaners are usually produced as honeycomb structure filled with granular adsorbent, which can be seen as numerous parallel arranged fixed beds. In order to investigate if the friction factor correlations for packed bed can be used in adsorption filter, experimental study was conducted using adsorption filters filled with spherical, columnar and crushed activated carbon from 2 to 20 mesh. The range of void fraction of adsorption filters is 0.29–0.92, and the range of particle Reynolds number is 8–1072. Comparing the experimental data with the calculation results using 12 published friction factor correlations, results show that large differences exist between the experimental data and the calculated values. Considering such large differences, friction factor correlations for packed bed are likely not suitable for prediction of pressure drop in adsorption filter.