Kinetics of the clogging and optimization of prefilters in a two-stage air cleaning system

The kinetics of the clogging of filters by submicron solid aerosol particles in the diffusion mode of deposition is studied, and a method is developed for optimizing the parameters of a prefilter in a two-stage system of fine air cleaning that consists of a prefilter and a final filter. The relation of the maximum allowable pressure drop to the optimum radius of the fibers, the optimum thickness of the prefilter, and the volume of the particles captured by the system is derived. It is shown that at a fixed radius of the fibers, the dependence of the final pressure drop and the dust holding capacity on the radius of the particles has a maximum that approximately corresponds to the radius of most penetrating particles.