Agglomerating Self-Cleaning Air Cleaner

摘要

This report describes an experimental program to evaluate an agglomerating self-cleaning air cleaner concept for application to diesel-powered tactical trucks and combat vehicles. Technical feasibility was evaluated through laboratory testing of candidate agglomerating media and through a design parameter component study of the agglomerator, inertial separator, and final filter integration and system operation. Several factors were used to evaluate media potential; namely, initial resistance as a function of airflow, dust loading and pressure drop recovery; the improvement in inertial separator efficiency (an indirect measure of agglomerate transport); overall operating efficiency; and consideration of the physical characteristics of the media with respect to their likely influence on design. Both surface loading and depth-type media were considered, and successful results were obtained with each. Overall, results clearly show that the agglomerating self-cleaning air cleaner concept can provide a significant improvement over standard systems with respect to service life. As a result, an air cleaner system based on this concept would fill the void between larger self-cleaning air filter (SCAF) units and the smaller cylindrical units currently used on many tactical trucks and small combat vehicles. This will allow the smaller vehicles, which cannot readily accept extended-life units, to function satisfactorily in a combat mission role.