A Unified Approach for the Prediction of Dry Pressure Drop in Knitted-Wire Mesh Demisters

Abstract

The removal of unwanted droplets in thermal separation units is often accomplished using knitted wire meshes. Alongside the separation efficiency, the pressure drop plays a crucial role for the design of these demisters. Wire meshes have been subject to limited investigations, and correlations for predicting the pressure drop, both with or without loading (referred to as dry pressure drop), have not yet been validated. To address this gap, experimental analyses of porosity and dry pressure drop were conducted over a wide range of wire mesh parameters and intake gas velocities. An empirical correlation was developed from these experimental results and further data from the literature. This correlation enables prediction of the pressure drop with a mean deviation of ±20 %.