Numerical Study Of Air Flow Efficiency In Filter Assemblies Using Computational Fluid Dynamic

Abstract

This study investigates airflow efficiency in air filter assemblies through a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation using ANSYS CFX. The primary objective is to evaluate the pressure drop characteristics of a digitally modeled Basic filter design and compare the simulation results with real-world performance data from the Salutary Avenue filter, a commercially available product used in gas turbine intake systems. The CFD simulation was conducted only on the Basic model, which was created using SolidWorks and analyzed in ANSYS Workbench (Academic Edition) under various inlet velocities (0.032, 0.063, 0.094, and 0.126 m/s). The simulation applied structured meshing, appropriate boundary conditions, and a standard k–ε turbulence model, with convergence criteria set to 1000 iterations and 1×10⁻⁴ RMS. Post-processing focused on pressure vector differences. The results showed a consistent trend with the real filter data, where pressure drops increased with higher inlet velocities. Although some variations in magnitude were noted, the CFD results demonstrated coherence with the field data, validating the Basic model’s accuracy in predicting airflow resistance. This approach supports the use of CFD as a reliable predictive tool in preliminary filter design and optimization for air intake systems.