CFD structural design of an intake air louver for low pressure drop and high large particle separation efficiency

Due to the inadequate separation efficiency of current louver used in industrial, commercial, and residential buildings in separating large particle, leading to clogging of subsequent high-efficiency filters and increased fan energy consumption. Therefore, it is essential to increase separation efficiency of large particle for fresh air intake to reduce the burden on the filter. In this study, a novel louver has higher large particle separation efficiency with lower pressure drop was developed based on experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. The effect of different structural parameters (number, length and location of dustproof hooks) and inlet air velocity on separation efficiency and pressure drop was evaluated. Results showed that mentioned factors could pose important impacts on pressure drop and separation efficiency. With the increase of inlet air velocity from 2.3 m/s to 2.8 m/s, the separation efficiency of the louver was decreased from 80.3 % to 57.3 %, while the pressure drop of the louver was increased from 11.1 Pa to 13.9 Pa. In addition, when inlet air velocity was 2.8 m/ s, compared with the commercial louver, the pressure drop of louver was reduced by 89.5 %, the large particle separation efficiency was increased by 158.6 %.