A Study on Flow in Duct Constructed of Nonwoven Fabric

The purpose of this paper is to investigate both the flow characteristics in the sock type of the air filter constructed of nonwoven fabric and the effect on drag reduction in a circular pipe flow by means of the wall coated with nonwoven fabric. The nonwoven fabric used in these experiments is an electret one made of polypropylene, and the fiber distribution is a random laying. The fiber is about 4 μ m in diameter and 0.6 mm in thickness of web. The nonwoven fabric without adhesion of dust was used in these experiments. The pressure distribution along the flow direction was measured for various parameters such as Reynolds number, shape of the air filter, and type of nonwoven fabric. The value of the permeability for the present nonwoven fabric is on the order of 10−11(m2) within the limits of this experiment. The pressure in the sock type of the air filter increases with increasing Re. The experimental results can be explained by Darcy’s law as d/L is larger than 0.1. In the small range of Re the calculated values obtained by the one-dimensional flow model qualitatively agree with those obtained by this experiment. It was proven that the wall coated with the nonwoven fabric is effective to reduce the drag in the circular pipe flow.