Barrierless Ultrasonic Air Cleaner

Abstract

This report describes an experimental program (SBIR Phase I) to demonstrate the technical feasibility of using an ultrasonic standing wave field to promote coalescence of airborne dusts in order to improve the separation efficiency of typical inertial separators such as current precleaners. Major project tasks included assembly of an ultrasonic coalescence array; measurement of the dust mass passing through an inertial separator as a function of upstream dust concentration, airflow rate, and ultrasonic power level; and calculation of the improvement in separator efficiency as a function of coalescence. The results clearly demonstrate the technical feasibility of using an ultrasonic standing wave field to alter the particle size distribution of airborne dust in order to improve the performance of existing inertial separators, such as those used for precleaner in state-of-the-art air cleaner systems. Importantly, there is no pressure drop across the standing wave field and hence the problems typically associated with barrier filter loading can be avoided. Ultrasonic, Dust, Precleaners.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1988
Accession Number
ADA204237

Entities

People

  • Brenda J. Thomas
  • Martin B. Treuhaft
  • Scott R. Taylor

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Cleaners
  • Classification
  • Contracts
  • Engineering
  • Flow
  • Flow Rate
  • Frequency
  • Materials
  • Measurement
  • Particle Size
  • Particles
  • Power Levels
  • Pressure Measurement
  • Relative Motion
  • Security
  • Sound Pressure
  • Standing Waves

Readers

  • Aerosol Science/Aerosol Physics
  • Defense Technology Research and Development.
  • Systems Analysis and Design