Aerosol Science and Technology

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The Permeability Distribution (PD) Method for

Filter Media Characterization

Michael Koch & Gernot Krammer

To cite this article: Michael Koch & Gernot Krammer (2008) The Permeability Distribution (PD)
Method for Filter Media Characterization, Aerosol Science and Technology, 42:6, 433-444, DOI:
10.1080/02786820802172053

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Aerosol Science and Technology, 42:433–444, 2008
Copyright
c American Association for Aerosol Research
ISSN: 0278-6826 print / 1521-7388 online
DOI: 10.1080/02786820802172053
The Permeability Distribution (PD) Method for Filter Media
Characterization
Michael Koch and Gernot Krammer
Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
(NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
Cake filtration is frequently used for the removal of particu-
late solids from fluids in industrial processes. The build up of a
filter cake is usually accompanied by a decrease in overall per-
meability of the filter leading to an increased pressure drop over
the filter medium. For an incompressible filter cake that builds up
on a homogeneous filter cloth (surface filtration mode), a linear
pressure drop profile is expected over time. However, occasionally
experiments show curved pressure drop profiles. Whereas pressure
drop profiles with increasing slope are generally ascribed to cake
compression and/or depth filtration, pressure drop profiles with
decreasing slopes are only ascribed to inhomogeneities in the filter.
Such inhomogeneities can arise due to filter cake patches and/or
an inhomogeneous filter cloth itself. In this work a method is pro-
posed that transforms the pressure drop profile of a filter into a
permeability distribution (PD) of the filter medium, thus account-
ing for possible inhomogeneities of the medium. The determination
of the PD is looked at as an inverse problem of an integral trans-
formation. The method is applied to experimental filter pressure
drop data of laboratory scale jet-pulse cleaned bag filter plants.
It is found that even clean filter media can exhibit a significant
permeability profile.
1. INTRODUCTION
Dust removal from gases is frequently accomplished by sur-
face filtration (Löffler et al. 1988). The gas pervades the filter
medium while the dust particles are retained by the surface of
the filter where they build up a filter cake. The formation of a
cake is accompanied by a decrease in the overall filter perme-
Received 14 March 2007; accepted 30 April 2008.
The authors thank Harald Hanche-Olsen from the Department of
Mathematics at NTNU for invaluable hints concerning the mathemati-
cal background of the model, namely for noting that the present problem
can be formulated as a Stieltjes transform. Financial support from the
Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) under the project no. P16313-N07
and the Austrian Energy and Environment AG & Co KG is gratefully
acknowledged.
Address correspondence to Michael Koch, Department of Energy
and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Tech-
nology (NTNU), Kolbjørn Hejes vei 1a, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway.
E-mail: michael.koch@ntnu.no
ability. In other words, the flow resistance increases as a filter
cake builds up.
Baghouse filters with fabric filter bags are frequently em-
ployed in industrial dust removal applications for high dust
concentrations. The filter medium is arranged as cleanable cylin-
drical filter bags, which are pervaded by the process gas. The
dust cake is commonly removed by reverse jet pulses (Koch
et al. 1996; Peukert & Wadenpohl 2001). The change of perme-
ability during the filter cake development/cleaning cycle causes
the pressure drop across the filter to vary with time, making it
difficult to maintain the desired steady flow through the process
plant.
The fiber material in filter media can be a polymer, e.g.,
polyamides or polytetrafluoroethylene or of mineral origin, such
as glass wool. Occasionally metal fibers are used. The choice
of the fibers depends on the filtration conditions including tem-
perature and possible chemical attack. The filter medium con-
sists of separate fibers that are processed into either a woven
cloth or a needlefelt. The latter frequently has a supporting wo-
ven scrim, on which the needlefelt is produced. Such a needle-
felt combines the mechanical strength and air permeability of
a woven material with the good dust separation characteris-
tics of a felt (Löffler et al. 1988). Generally, both the inter-
nal structure and surface properties of fabric filter media are
inhomogeneous.
The permeability of filter media carrying cake is usually de-
scribed in terms of the separate contributions of the filter cloth
resistance and the filter cake resistance. The contribution of the
filter cloth is usually reported as a single permeability value for
a specific type of filter medium; the permeability is determined
in a standardized test EN ISO 9237, or from base pressure drop
measurements on thoroughly cleaned industrial filters that are
subjected to a gas flow.
The contribution of the filter cake to the pressure drop is fre-
quently captured by a constant value based on the cake mass
loading per unit area, i.e., a proportionality of cake resistance
and cake mass per unit of filter area. The assumption of a con-
stant dust mass flow to the filter thus implies a linear increase
in pressure drop (Löffler et al. 1988). However, experimental
findings show that this linear assumption is not always justified.
433
434 M. KOCH AND G. KRAMMER
Strangert (1978), Leubner and Riebel (2001), and Hoff et al.
(2005) find that the pressure drop increases rapidly immediately
after initiating filtration starts; however, the rate of increase slows
as the filter cake develops. Leubner and Riebel (2001) ascribe
their experimental findings to inhomogeneities in the filter cloth,
but provide little detail. The time variation of the pressure drop
across a filter is decisive for the operating pressure drop level
of a filter. A pressure drop curve with a decreasing slope, but
the same asymptotic slope, is always above the linear curve in-
crease. Thus, a filter actually exhibiting such a curved pressure
drop profile will operate during filtration cycles at an average
pressure above the ideally expected linear case.
Gradual cake compression cannot account for the observed
pressure drop profiles, since it would increase the pressure drop
slope. Increasing pressure drop slopes are reported to originate
from depth filtration too, where particles are deposited inside the
filter cloth. Both processes increase specific dust cake resistance
(Schmidt 1997).
Chen et al. (2001) present a detailed experimental study of
the pressure drop over three cleanable needlefelt filter media that
were challenged with monodisperse dust. They report a rather
fast initial pressure drop increase, that slows over the course of
filtration. This effect was observed on all filter media for particle
sizes 5, 10, and 20 µm. The initial slope for 5 µm particles
was, however, slightly lower, which indicates depth filtration,
possibly because the smallest particles may be able to penetrate
deeper into the filter medium than larger particles. The rapid
pressure drop increase at the beginning of filtration is ascribed
to inhomogeneous pore filling the filter medium surface; the
rate of increase slows once a homogeneous cake develops. Chen
et al. (2001) hypothesize that a two-stage cake development
within and on top of the pores occurs for the larger particles that
they studied. They observed that the deposited particle mass
at the end of stage one, i.e., pore filtration, did not depend on
the particle size. Stage two is homogeneous filter cake build up
over the entire area of the filter medium. The flow resistance
increased linearly with decreasing particle size in contrast to
previous reports of a quadratic dependency on size (Kozeny
1927, cited in Löffler et al. 1988). The experimental findings
in Chen et al. (2001) suggest that the initial cake build up is
inhomogeneous, which may result from an inhomogeneous pore
structure, but no quantitative analysis is given.
Dufrêche et al. (2002) study fluid flow in Stokes regime
two-dimensionally through a highly idealized porous layer. The
model geometry considered is a uniform sieve with regular per-
forations, i.e., a flat plate with regularly arranged holes. Fluid
can only pass through the actual perforation. The streamlines are
correspondingly deflected upstream of the sieve and are concen-
trated through the perforation. Cake build up simulations with
Lagranian particle tracking, neglecting any slip between the fluid
and particles, yields a preferential cake development on or close
to the perforation. The deposited cake is treated as continuous
porous solid with fixed, isotropic flow resistance properties. Its
hydrodynamics can be described by Darcy’s law. Subsequently
an altered flow field with filter cake present is calculated, and
further cake build up can be simulated. Thus, an inhomogeneous
filter cake gradually develops around the perforation. The appar-
ent permeability of the growing filter cake is calculated and for
thin cakes the apparent permeability of the inhomogeneous filter
cake is significantly lower than the corresponding permeability
of a homogeneous cake with the same mean thickness. The ap-
parent permeability approaches the mean value as cake growth
proceeds. This again implies that at a constant flow rate and con-
stant upstream solid concentration, i.e., time-linear mean cake
growth, the pressure drop is initially increasing faster, since the
pressure drop and the permeability are inversely proportional.
Here the inhomogeneity of the filter cake is not exclusively at-
tributed to the pore structure of the medium, but also to the
upstream flow. The modeling of the filter medium as uniform
sieve with regular holes, i.e., as the combination perforation–
impermeable plate, is not directly applicable fabric filter media,
and Dufrêche et al. (2002) rightfully mention their main applica-
tion in membrane filtration. Although this model is not applied
to the complex structure of a fabric filter medium, its findings
are phenomenologically interesting for fabric filtration as well.
Modeling the filter plant operation introduces another per-
spective on inhomogeneity of the filter. Duo et al. (1997), Dit-
tler and Kasper (1999), Kavouras and Krammer (2003), and Mao
et al. (2006), for example, propose their respective models. In
these models, the filter area is divided into different model ar-
eas, each carrying patches of filter cake. The size of each patch
and cake thickness on the patch is derived from the degree of
regeneration and the operational setup of the filter, i.e., whether
or not the filter is divided into compartments that are cleaned
separately. Since cake patches of different thicknesses impose
correspondingly different flow resistances, an inhomogeneous
flow situation arises. Darcy’s law typically captures the fluid
flow through the filter medium and filter cake. The build up of
a filter cake is governed by the solid mass reaching the filter,
i.e., all particles that are transported to the filter form the filter
cake. Both, compressible and incompressible cakes are simu-
lated. The models proposed in the literature simulate this situa-
tion, accounting for the contributions of various mechanisms of
the filter operation such as an incomplete filter regeneration (all
models), a compartmented filter setup (explicitly by Kavouras
and Krammer 2003), an initial depth filtration stage (Mao et al.
2006), and a two-dimensional flow field (Dittler and Kasper
1999). However, the inhomogeneous distribution of the filter
cake and, thus, of the filter permeability is exclusively attributed
to the history of the filter cake, i.e., previous filtration and re-
generation cycles. None of the filter operation models available
in the literature consider, or even describe, an inhomogeneous
filter medium itself.
This work comprises the deduction of a one-dimensional fil-
ter model based on flow governed by Darcy’s law that allows for
inhomogeneous filter medium permeability. The filter medium
permeability is taken as a distribution, rather than geometrically
resolved. This distribution can account for pores in the filter
 PD METHOD FOR FILTER MEDIA CHARACTERIZATION
medium that lead to inhomogeneous flow and consequent in-
homogeneous cake build up. Based on that model a method is
derived for the identification of the filter medium permeability
distribution from the pressure drop increase curve during fil-
tration. Such a filter medium permeability distribution yields
structural information about the filter medium that is relevant
for filtration. Filter pressure drop data sets from two different
experimental setups are used as input for the proposed method.
Thus the available experimental series presented elsewhere are
used and additional experimental work is not performed. The
permeability distribution is a time-free representation of filter
medium features, which have a direct effect on the transient
pressure drop behavior in the course of filtration. It is shown
that inhomogeneous filter media can only operate at a higher
pressure drop level than homogeneous media given the same
integral filter media permeability and the same operational pa-
rameters such as dust load and cycle times.
2. CAKE FILTRATION MODEL
A cake filter model for filter media with distributed perme-
ability is developed. Starting from an illustration of the cake fil-
tration on an inhomogeneous filter medium, the required math-
ematical framework is derived. Hereafter homogeneous refers
to a property that is independent on the location on the filter,
whereas inhomogeneous can vary with filter location.
In Figure 1a, the plain filter medium is displayed schemati-
cally. The filter medium is illustrated by vertical lines depicting
pores penetrating the filter medium vertically. The pore size
varies thereby symbolizing the local permeability of the filter
medium, i.e., small pores (dense lines) have a higher flow resis-
tance, than the wider pores. The filter model assumes Darcy flow
through the filter medium and thus the relation of flow velocity
and pressure drop is linear:

p(t = 0)
v(t = 0, A) = k0 (A) · [1]
ηg
Equation (1) is the proportional relation between the pressure
drop
p and the flow velocity v across the filter medium. It is
given at time t = 0, which henceforth refers to the beginning
of filtration. The proportionality factor is the ratio of the per-
meability k0 of the filter medium and the dynamic gas viscosity
ηg . The velocity profile in Figure 1a illustrates the effect of the
inhomogeneous permeability of the filter medium: At locations
with a lower permeability the flow velocity is also lower, and
according to Equation (1) this is a directly proportional rela-
tion. The depicted flow velocity is taken directly after or even
in the filter cloth. Downstream of the filter viscosity effects will
equalize the velocity profile rapidly. The superficial flow, i.e.,
the flow velocities in or through the filter medium, encountered
in filtration is mainly perpendicular to the filter medium.
It should be noted that, although one-dimensional cake build
up is assumed, flow is not restricted to be perfectly perpendicular
435
A
∆p
v
a
filter cake (schematically)
∆p
v
b
FIG. 1. Schema of a cross-section of a filter medium with inhomogeneous
permeability and the corresponding flow field at a certain pressure drop level.
(a) clean filter medium and (b) filter medium carrying a filter cake layer.
to the filter medium; rather the cake build up is sufficiently well
described one-dimensionally along the streamlines.
Filtration takes place when the fluid upstream contains par-
ticles. The particles are retained by the filter medium. During
cake filtration the particles deposit onto the filter medium and
subsequently onto already deposited particles, thereby forming a
filter cake. Figure 1b depicts the idealized cake formation where
a filter cake is formed on the filter medium. Since the flow field
for the filter medium is inhomogeneous due to a distributed per-
meability, cake formation is also affected. Cake is forming faster
in areas with an initially high flow velocity, since more particles
are deposited in these areas. This is reflected by the filter cake
thickness in Figure 1b, which is higher in areas with a higher
permeability of the filter medium and thus a higher initial flow
velocity. However, the filter cake itself represents a flow resis-
tance too. Under the assumption of an internally homogeneous
cake, i.e., a cake that has a constant specific flow resistance on
a Darcy scale (cf. Dufrêche et al. 2002), the flow resistance is
proportional to the filter cake thickness. Mathematically this fact
can be captured by Equation (2). Here the left-hand side is the
reciprocal value of the filter cake permeability, i.e., the filter
cake resistance. The right-hand side is the cake mass loading
per unit area z that, under the assumption of an internally ho-
mogeneous cake, corresponds to a certain cake thickness. The
436 M. KOCH AND G. KRAMMER

proportionality factor is the specific cake resistance αm . and the time derivative of Equation (3) is:

1
1

1

= αm · z(t, A) [2] d k(t,A)
d kc (t,A)
kc (t, A) = [7]
dt dt
When a filter cake is present, the fluid flow is determined by Expressing the solid area load term in Equation (6) by Equa-
the combined flow resistances of filter medium and filter cake. tion (5) and subsequently kc (t, A) by k(t, A) using Equation (7)
The flow resistances of filter medium k0−1 (A) and filter cake gives:
kc−1 (t, A) are in series and thus add linearly:
 
1
1 1 1 d k(t,A)
= + [3] = αm · csol · v(t, A) [8]
k(t, A) kc (t, A) k0 (A) dt

The fluid flow when cake is present is determined by a linear Here the filtration velocity v(t, A) can be expressed by Equa-
relation similar to Equation (1) but with the combined perme- tion (4), which reads:
ability k instead of just k0 :

1
d k(t,A) αm · csol

p(t) = · k(t, A) ·
p(t) [9]
v(t, A) = k(t, A) · [4] dt ηg
ηg
In this equation, both the permeability and the pressure drop
The permeability depends on both the location on the filter A are time dependent. However, Equation (9) can be rearranged
and the filtration time t. The latter dependency describes the by separating variables. Thereby evaluating the derivative on the
evolution of the permeability as cake build up proceeds. The left-hand side of Equation (9) gives:
mechanistic cake build up is described by solid continuity. In
cake filters, almost all the dust that is transported to the filter is d (k(t, A)) αm · csol
retained on the filter to form a cake. Here it is assumed that the − = ·
p(t) · dt [10]
k 3 (t, A) ηg
upstream solid concentration is constant, so the filter cake mass
balance reads:
Equation(10) is a differential equation with separated vari-
dz(t, A) ables k(t, A) and
p(t), respectively. Integrating from time zero
= csol · v(t, A) [5] to t on the right-hand side and the corresponding permeabilities
dt
on the left-hand side gives:
Equation (5) gives the direct proportionality between cake build 
up and flow velocity. 1 1 αm · csol t
− =2· ·
p(t) · dt [11]
The filter cake depicted in Figure 1b causes, as stated, addi- k 2 (t, A) k02 (A) ηg 0
tional flow resistance. To overcome that increased resistance and
keep the total volume flow constant (constant flow filtration) the Hereby, the relation k(t = 0, A) = k0 (A) is used, reflecting that
pressure drop increases. In classical filtration theory a homoge- at time t = 0 the permeability relates only to the permeability
neous filter medium and a homogeneous filter cake build up give of the filter medium (cf. Equation [1]). In Equation (11) the
a linear pressure drop increase (Löffler et al. 1988). However, right-hand side is only time dependent, i.e., it does not show any
if the filter medium is inhomogeneous but an internally homo- dependency on the filter area. That implies that the evolution of
geneous cake builds up the pressure drop increases nonlinearly the permeability with the distributed initial value k0 (A) is related
with a decreasing slope. by only one scalar value which is be abbreviated to s(t), hence
termed filter state.
3. MATHEMATICAL MODEL DEVELOPMENT  t
αm · csol
In this section, a mathematical pressure drop model is de- s(t) ≡ 2 · ·
p(t) · dt [12]
ηg 0
veloped for a filter that leads to a characteristic function of the
permeability of the filter medium. This pressure drop model is The physical meaning of Equation (11) is that the evolution
based solely on the equations that comprise the cake filter model of the permeability on any area element A of the filter is solely
(Section 2) and the respective assumptions. determined by the evolution of the pressure drop over time. This
The time derivative of Equation (2) is is because the build up of the filter cake is the reason for the

1
 changing permeability which, in turn, is merely determined by
d kc (t,A) dz(t, A) the filtration velocity and thus the pressure difference over the
= αm · [6]
dt dt filter.
 PD METHOD FOR FILTER MEDIA CHARACTERIZATION 437

Equations (11) and (12) lead to an additive relation that de- to account for the substitution of the variable of integration by
scribes the permeability by two contributors, the initial perme- Equation (17):
ability k0−2 (A), only depending on the filter area and the filter
 ∞
state s(t) only depending on time. Thus, a separation of variables V̇ · ηg
[u + s(t)]− 2 d(u)
1
= [18]
is accomplished in the integrated form too. Atot
p(t) u=0

k −2 (t, A) = k0−2 (A) + s(t) [13] The form of Equation (18) with a function as variable of
integration is called Riemann-Stieltjes integral. In this equation
In other words, the flow situation of the unloaded filter both
p and s appear depending on time t. It is shown below
medium (Figure 1a) depends only upon the local domain. Based that the filter state s is treated as a parameter and therefore the
on that, the subsequent filter cake build up is only determined explicit time dependency can be omitted. The constant values
by the scalar filter state s(t), which is only time dependent. are abbreviated by a single factor pc :
So far the filter is considered on a scale resolving the inho-
mogeneities on the filter location A. However, to describe a filter V̇ · ηg
pc ≡ [19]
by a pressure drop model the entire filter must be considered. By Atot
integrating over all filter locations A, i.e., the entire filter area
Atot , in Equation (4) one obtains: which gives
 ∞
  1 1

p(t) (u + s)− 2 d(u)
Atot Atot 1
= · [20]
v(t, A)dA = · k(t, A)dA [14]
p pc
A=0 ηg A=0
0

Equation (20) contains s, which depends on the pressure drop

The left-hand side represents the volume flow through the
entire filter V̇ , which is constant for constant flow filtration.
Rearranging Equation (14) and expressing the permeability by
Equation (13) yields:
 treatment of Equation (12) is given in the Appendix. By defining
V̇ · ηg Atot  − 1
= k0−2 (A) + s(t) 2 dA

p(t) A=0
Equation (15) represents a direct relation between the pres-
sure drop and the initial permeability function k0 (A). For simpli-
fying the representation of this relation slightly and with respect
to further mathematical treatment, it is advisable to introduce
the abbreviation:
u ≡ k0−2 (A)
The filter location A identifies an area of the filter with its
permeability value. The permeability is not resolved locally.
Thereby the relation between the location A and the permeabil-
ity, i.e., k0 or u, can be inverted. Since no assumptions on the na-
ture of the general area variable A were made, it can be replaced
by Adist representing the cumulative filter area. By normalizing
Adist with the total filter area Atot this distribution function can
be introduced in dimensionless form by:
Adist
(u) ≡
Atot
Here (u) is the cumulative permeability area distribution
function. Since u is unambiguously linked to k0 (Equation [16]),
(u) shall be termed the permeability distribution (PD). The
limits of integration of Equation (15) are changed accordingly

p and time t according to the definition of Equation (12).
Filter data are generally available as
p over time t. Equation
(12) is manipulated mathematically to explicitly obtain time t
as a function of filter state s and the PD (u). The mathematical
[15] the abbreviation
Atot
tc ≡ [21]
αm csol V̇
one obtains an explicit relation between t and s:
 ∞ 
t = tc ·
1 1
(u + s) 2 − u 2 d(u) [22]
0
[16]
Thus filtration time t and pressure drop
p are linked via the
filter state s as a parameter, for a set of constants pc and tc and
a PD (u).
Equation (22) is a unique assignment between time t and filter
state s, since any increase in s on the right-hand side is directly
reflected by an increase in t.
4. PERMEABILITY DISTRIBUTION (PD) METHOD
The outcome of the mathematical filter model consists of
two equations, Equations (20) and (22). They are linked via the
filter state s as model-inherent parameter. It can be seen that
[17]
the pressure drop and the time axis are scaled by the composite
parameters pc and tc , respectively.
Equation (22) is the relation between time t and filter state s.
The main feature of this relation is that it is a bijective assign-
ment, i.e., every value of t corresponds to exactly one value of
s and vice versa. Thus the measured time can be unequivocally
438 M. KOCH AND G. KRAMMER
converted to filter state s. Consequently a measured
p(t) can
be converted to exactly one corresponding
p(s).
Equation (20) has the form of the generalized Stieltjes trans-
formation. This integral transformation is treated by Hirschmann
and Widder (1955) who give an inversion formula for this prob-
lem, i.e., a way to identify the distribution function (u) from
the left-hand side, i.e.,
p(s). More importantly their inversion
theory is based on uniqueness and the integral kernel in Equa-
tion (20) is captured by that theory. Thus the inverse problem
underlying Equation (20) is unambiguously determined. A given
pressure drop curve
p(s) has one and only one possible under-
lying permeability distribution function.
The filter model outlined above is the core of the hence-
forth termed the PD method: A measured pressure drop vs. time
profile of a filter is converted into a PD of the filter. This is
accomplished via inversion of Equation (20). Since this equa-
tion contains the filter state s as a parameter, the time is con-
verted to the filter state by using Equation (22), which is like-
wise uniquely invertible. Since no restrictions on the range of
t and s were made, theoretically any arbitrary part of the left-
hand side function, i.e.,
p, can be chosen as input for the PD
method.
Implementation
The available inversion theory for the Stieltjes transform
makes use of arbitrary high derivatives of the
p(s) function.
Thus the inversion theory does not straightforwardly lead to the
computation of the distribution function. Practically numerical
methods succeed in solving the problem, which are discussed
in detail by Koch (2008). The hitherto continuous PD, (u),
is discretized. Equations (20) and (22) are rewritten in the dis-
cretized formulation, whereby the integration is approximated
by the rectangle rule:
1 1
m
(u i + s)− 2
i
1
= · [23]

p pc i=1
m 
1
[t(s),
p(s)] for a sufficiently large number of different s-values.
These s-values are chosen to compute a pressure drop curve on
a time range that is covering the entire measured pressure drop
curve at a resolution superior to the experimental sampling rate.
This computed pressure drop curve is linearly interpolated to
each experimental measurement time value. Thus, for each ex-
perimental point a computed pressure drop value is obtained
and the sum of the square errors can be calculated. The opti-
mization problem is an unconstrained nonlinear problem and

R
is solved with a commercially available code (Matlab Opti-
mization Toolbox). To increase the performance of the solver
the variables u i are scaled to vary around unity. The initial guess
supplied to the optimization algorithm is a vector of identical
u i -values, i.e., a homogeneous PD.
It should be noted that the PD method uses only well-
established parameters expressed by pc and tc (defined by Equa-
tions [19] and [21], respectively). Among these parameters only
the specific cake resistance αm must be determined experimen-
tally, because all other parameters that affect these two coeffi-
cients are the design parameters of the filter plant and are thus
usually well known.
Since the measured pressure drop difference is in general
affected by a measurement error, the inversion of the mea-
sured
p(s) function is in practice inconsistent, i.e., one cannot
obtain a PD that exactly fits every measurement point. How-
ever, more importantly the accuracy of the inversion must be
examined. A detailed evaluation is performed and given else-
where Koch (2008), since it would exceed the scope of this
article.
5. EXPERIMENTAL
Experimental pressure drop data, on which the PD method is
applied, was gathered from two different laboratory-scale bag
filter plants. Both filter plants consisted of a two-screw feeder
that supplied a constant mass flow of dust to a dispersion noz-
zle via a vibrating chute. Pressurized air dispersed the dust in

1
t = tc · (u i + s) 2 − u i2
i [24]
i=1
The PD (u) and the variable u are discretized with index i into
m intervals. In the approximation of the integral the frequency
distribution
i is used, which will be defined as the discrete
difference
i = i − i−1 . The discretization of the cumula-
tive distribution function  is fixed with a constant
i = m1 .
The PD is obtained via optimization with the ui ’s being the op-
timization variables. The optimization goal is the sum of square
errors of the difference of the measured and computed pressure
drop curves.
The optimization goal computes the functions
p via Equa-
tion (23) and t via Equation (24) for a given set of optimiza-
tion variables u i . The filter state s is hereby arbitrary, which
allows for the computation of a parametric pressure drop curve
the nozzle. The dispersed dust was mixed with the gas stream,
which was sucked through the filter plant by an induced draft
fan. The gas volume flow after the filter was recorded and con-
trolled to a certain set value via the frequency-controlled fan.
The dust-laden gas entered the filter housing near the bottom. In
the filter housing three filter bags were mounted on wire cages.
The bags were pervaded by the dust-laden gas from the outside
to the inside. Dust particles were retained at the outer surface
of the filter bags. The clean gas flowed upwards inside the fil-
ter bags and was collected in the clean gas header. Due to the
dust that accumulated on the filter bags, a filter cake formed and
the overall permeability of the filter decreased. As the fan kept
the volumetric flow rate of the gas constant, the pressure drop
through the filter increased. The filter was regenerated either af-
ter a certain pressure drop over the filter was reached or after
a certain time interval for filtration had elapsed. Filter regener-
ation was carried out by a reverse air jet pulse. Each filter bag
 PD METHOD FOR FILTER MEDIA CHARACTERIZATION 439

jet pulse unit to a single set volume flow V̇ , listed in Table 1, according to
Equation (26).
PDC fan V̇
clean gas

p =
pexp · [26]
dust laden gas V̇exp

Another set of experiments was carried out at a different filtra-

FC
bag filter
solid product
FIG. 2. Basic flow chart of the experimental facilities used.
could be regenerated separately. In Figure 2a basic flowchart of
these filter plants is given. The plants, however, differed in the
actual specification and scale.
The experimental plant #1 was also designed for optical
thickness measurements of the filter cake. This plant is also
presented by Saleem et al. (2005) and Saleem and Krammer
(2007) and relevant operational parameters are given in Table
1. The plant operated at ambient temperature and atmospheric
pressure. Commercial grade non-precipitated limestone CaCO3
with a mass mean diameter of 5 µm and a bulk density of
1200 kg·m−3 was used as sample dust. The filter medium in
the experiment was a polyphenylensulfide (PPS) and polyimide
(PI) needlefelt on a polyimide (PI) supporting scrim which was
heat treated on the dust side. Only the online measurements
of pressure drop across the filter and gas volumetric flow rate
are used in this work. The measurement locations are shown
in the flowchart in Figure 2 indicated by PDC for pressure dif-
ference and FC for flow. The dust concentration is calculated
according to:
ṁ c
csol = [25]
V̇
tion plant #2. Details of this test series can be found in Koch et al.
(2007). The basic features were similar to the filtration plant #1
presented already. The different plant specifications are given in
Table 1. Here no specific cake resistance value is given, because
several different values are determined corresponding to each
filter start up. The sample dust used was commercially available
quicklime CaO with a mass median diameter of 5 µm and a
bulk density of 1000 kg·m−3 . The bag filter medium used dur-
ing these experiments was a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)/PI


R
needlefelt with a PTFE supporting scrim and a Membratex
surface treatment. The aim of the experiments was to study the
evolution of the conditioning of filter media in typical dry flue
gas cleaning conditions, i.e., at an elevated temperature of 140◦ C
and atmospheric pressure over time. A slipstream of the off-gas
of a natural gas burner was used as flue gas in which the sample
dust is dispersed. The entire plant was insulated and electrically
heated to keep the operation temperature at the desired level and
avoid local condensation.
6. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 3 shows the start up of filter plant #1; this is termed the
ramp test. The filter medium does not carry any filter cake and
is thoroughly cleaned at the beginning of this experimental run.
The vertical dashed line indicates the point in time when the dust
dosing equipment was activated. Subsequently one observes an
increase in pressure difference, i.e., the pressure drop ramp. Thus
the overall permeability of the filter is decreasing.
1200 300
←Start of dust feed
1000

The specific cake resistance value αm is determined from the

pressure difference ∆ p, Pa

800 200
slope of the linear asymptote of the pressure drop curve as dis-
1

cussed below.
fl ow V˙ , m3 · h

The controlled gas volume flow changed slightly due the re- 600
sponse time of the control loop. To account for a slightly varying
gas volume flow the measured pressure drop
pexp is corrected 400 100

TABLE 1 200 ∆p
Design data of laboratory scale bag filter plants V̇exp
0 0
Plant Atot ṁ c ηg αm V̇ − 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
time, s
# m2 kg s−1 Pa s m kg−1 m3 h−1
1 2.04 8.4 10−4 1.8 10−5 6.67 109 240 FIG. 3. Pressure drop and volume flow at filter start up (in order to provide a
more concise presentation the volume flow is displayed as floating mean value
2 0.53 1.5 10−5 2.0 10−5 — 40 with 20 seconds two sided window length).
440 M. KOCH AND G. KRAMMER

The pressure drop curve has a positive curvature for the initial 1250
short period of 15–20 seconds after dust dosing started. During
this period, the dust concentration in the filter housing increases

pressure difference ∆p, Pa

until it reaches a constant value. The filter plant is equipped with
an optical measurement system, i.e., a glass window is installed
in the filter housing and the increase of dust concentration can
be observed qualitatively. Also the average gas residence time
in the filter housing is in the observed range of time. The filter
housing contains a raw gas volume of approximately 0.8 m3 ,
which leads to an average residence time of 12 s at the opera-
tion point displayed. Assuming infinite backmixing in the filter
housing, which is justified given the turbulence observed in the
filter housing, 80% of the final dust concentration is reached af-
ter approximately 19 s. More interestingly, the curvature of the
pressure drop curve changes when a constant dust concentration
in the housing is reached. A pronounced decrease in the pressure
drop slope can be observed.
Since this is the start up of the filtration plant on a clean filter
cloth, inhomogeneous dust deposition cannot be attributed to
residual cake patches attached to the filter cloth. Cake compres-
sion and/or depth filtration could only account for an increasing
pressure drop slope.
Finally, the transient pressure drop increases linearly, which
can be explained by a practically equalized permeability pro-
file over the filter. This entails homogenous flow and the cake
builds up homogeneously. The slope of the transient pressure
drop asymptote can be directly used to obtain the specific
cake resistance αm by combining Equations (4) and (8) for
equalized permeability, i.e., no dependency on A has to be
considered:
2
1 Atot d
p
αm = lim [27]
ηg csol V̇ t→∞ dt
For practical use one cannot employ the limit but should
consider long times at which the pressure drop increase is linear.
Figure 4 shows the pressure drop profile during semi-
continuous operation. After filter start up, which is similar to
the experiment presented in Figure 3, the filter is regenerated
when reaching a pre-set maximum pressure drop level of 1200
Pa. The entire filter is not directly exposed to a jet-pulse at every
regeneration step. Only one out of three filter bags is cleaned
at a time. Filtration then continues until the maximum pres-
1000
750
500
250
∆p at V̇ = 240 m3 · h− 1
0
0 200 400 600
time t, s
FIG. 4. Pressure drop profile during semi-continuous filter operation. The
pressured drop increases until 1200 Pa is reached. During regeneration one of
three filter bags is directly exposed to a jet pulse.
area having a significantly higher permeability than the rest of
the filter cloth.
Figure 6 compares the measured and calculated pressure drop
profiles. The solid black line is the computed output from the
PD method indicating the range which was directly used as in-
put data for the PD method. The initial phase, i.e., when the
dust concentration in the filter housing is still increasing, is not
used as input for the PD method, because that would violate
the assumption of a constant solid concentration as required by
Equation (5). In fact only a part of the pressure drop curve suf-
fices, since the inverse problem is unambiguously determined
as mentioned above.
The shape of the PD in Figure 5, which is basically bi-
modal, can be interpreted in line with the results of Chen et al.
(2001), who ascribe the initial pressure drop increase to an
1
0.8
0.6
Φ,

sure drop level is reached again and the next bag is cleaned in 0.4
sequence.
The PD method is applied to experimental data displayed
0.2
in Figure 3. The initial progressive pressure drop increase is PD
omitted and the remaining pressure drop data are used as input integral mean
for the PD method. The resulting PD (k0 ) is displayed in Figure 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
5 alongside its integral mean value, i.e., the apparent permeabil- k0, m
x 10
ity of the clean filter cloth. Note that the PD (k0 ) depending on
the permeability is directly obtained from (u), since k0 and u FIG. 5. PD determined for the pressure drop rise shown in Figure 3. The
are unambiguously linked by means of Equation (16). The clean shaded area corresponds to the integral mean value which is displayed as the
filter cloth exhibits a strong PD with about 10–15% of the filter dashed lined in addition.
 PD METHOD FOR FILTER MEDIA CHARACTERIZATION 441

1200 550
∆p experimental
1000 500
pressure difference ∆p, Pa

pressure drop ∆p, Pa

450
800
Enlargement Dust feeder stop
400
600
350
400 350
300
250
200
250
150
10 0 10 20 Residual pressure drop
0
50 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 200
0 50 100
time t, s
time t, min
FIG. 6. Pressure drop: experimental versus the PD method. The initial phase
is enlarged. The solid curve shows the part which was directly used to determine FIG. 7. Pressure drop profile during the residual pressure test on the third
the PD. The dashed curve shows the extrapolation of the PD method to the initial experimental day in plant #2.
pressure drop value.
observed that clearly had a decreasing slope. The dust feeder
was stopped again after about one hour and the filter bags were
inhomogeneous porous structure of the filter medium. The voids cleaned again to repeat the residual pressure drop value test.
on the surface would fill up initially, before a homogeneous cake Eventually the normal filtration experiment with cleaning every
build up proceeds. While Chen et al. (2001) explain their exper- 300 seconds was continued. The relatively large differences in
imental results with a qualitative geometrical model of the filter the time scale when comparing Figures 3 and 4 with Figure 7
surface, the PD method aims to give a direct quantification of must be attributed to significantly different experimental dust
the flow resistance of the filter medium relevant for the sub- concentrations calculated from Equation (25). The integral per-
sequent filtration. Of course, the result of the PD method, i.e., meability values corresponding to the residual pressure drop are
the resistance distribution, gives room for interpretation of the displayed in Figure 8 for the entire experiment. These values are
porous structure of the filter medium. The small area of 10–15% easily comparable to datasheets provided by a manufacturer and
exhibiting high permeability can be pores that have a rather low show a steady decrease during the conditioning period, which is
flow resistance, but are rapidly filled with particles during the leveling off at a certain value.
initial filtration period. The inherent irregularities of a porous For each ramp test of the filter cloth conditioning experiment
medium have consequences on the upstream flow, Dufrêche on plant #2 a PD is determined. The evolution mean permeability
et al. (2002). As particles follow the flow, an inhomogeneous
filter cake is formed, but not in an attempt to strive for a geomet-
rically homogeneous filter surface, as Chen et al. (2001) suggest, x 10
1
rather this is for a homogeneous flow situation. Both effects, the
geometric and flow constraints, may be important and they are
accounted for implicitly by the PD method. 0.8
Filter cloth conditioning experiments in plant #2 lasted for
integral mean k0, m

120 h and were conducted with an initially virgin cloth. Filter

0.6
regeneration was accomplished by cleaning one bag with a re-
verse jet pulse at a preset cycle time of 300 seconds. Filtration
was stopped once every day by switching off the dust feeder, 0.4
but the gas flow was kept constant. The pressure drop profile
during such a stop is exemplarily depicted in Figure 7 for the
0.2
third experimental day during this 120 h period. The filter was
thoroughly cleaned by a series of jet pulses in short succession
until no change was observed in the residual pressure drop over 0
the filter. The integral cloth permeability is determined from this 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
time, d
residual pressure drop value. With the cleaning device disabled,
a ramp test was carried out by engaging the dust feeder. Sub- FIG. 8. Measured integral permeability values during filter cloth conditioning
sequently a pressure drop increase on the clean filter cloth was starting with the virgin cloth in plant #2.
442 M. KOCH AND G. KRAMMER
1 Clean filter clothes are found to exhibit a significant perme-
0.8
0.6
Φ,
day 1
0.4
day 2
day 3
0.2 day 4
day 5
day 6
0 results of the PD unless information about the compressibility
10 10
k ,m
0
FIG. 9. PDs computed for the pressure drop ramp tests during filter cloth
conditioning on plant #2. The PDs are referenced to the actually measured
integral value as shown by the corresponding measured points in Figure 8.
values of the clean cloth are presented in Figure 8 and show a
steady decrease in the integral value. However, the PDs show
quite a different picture. In Figure 9 one can see that a shift of
the initial PD to lower levels is observed but also a significant
shift of the jump on the ordinate is found. Thus not only a higher
cloth pressure drop level must be expected after conditioning of
the filter cloth, but also the filtration characteristics concerning
the curvature of the pressure drop relation changes significantly.
One particular feature is remarkable: the difference between the
virgin filter cloth on day 1, i.e., a brand-new cloth without prior
exposure to dust, and the other days. The PDs on the thoroughly
cleaned filter cloth exhibit both, high absolute permeability val-
ues and an even step in the area distribution at about 50%. All
successively determined PDs do not even come close to the val-
ues reached by the virgin material, indicating that even thorough
filter cleaning cannot clean the filter medium completely. Here
the change of a PD and thus the filtration characteristics of a
filter cloth in operation can be seen, that cannot be derived from
only the residual pressure drop levels when the bags are cleaned
thoroughly.
7. CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK
A new method is proposed that allows transforming pressure
drop profiles into permeability distributions of the filter media.
The PD method is derived from an analytical filter model, which
assumes cake filtration. The pressure drop–filtration velocity re-
lation is described one dimensionally by Darcy’s law. The filter
cake is assumed to be incompressible and to have a constant
specific flow resistance. The model is comprehensively deduced.
Mathematically the unique equivalence of a pressure drop profile
and a PD is shown. A direct independent experimental verifica-
tion of the PD has not been possible which would require highly
resolved velocity measurements in close proximity to the filter
surface.
ability profile. PDs are determined for experimental pressure
drop data for two specific laboratory plants. However, pressure
drop data from any filter plant that is covered by the basic flow-
sheet in Figure 2 can be used to determine a PD, since the method
requires only standard measurements. Thus the PD method can
be applied to the transient pressure drop data of industrial fil-
ter plants.
Violation of the assumption of an incompressible filter cake at
all times, i.e., development of a compressible filter cake, would
not necessarily become apparent when applying the PD method.
The effect of a compressible cake would be lumped into the
features of the filter cake is available additionally. Of course,
if a relation is available that captures the dependency of the
permeability and the filtration parameters, Equation (2) can be
adjusted accordingly. Depending on the actual relation used in
Equation (2), the subsequent deduction of the filter model will
be altered. In general one cannot expect to obtain closed forms
of the integral transformations as for the linear case. However,
a closed form of the integral transformations is not required
though it is desirable to apply the filter model. The resulting
filter model would be in any case be severely complicated by
the necessity to include the pressure drop in such a relation. As
the uniqueness of the Stieltjes transform is even provided with a
linear relation such as Equation (2) a nonlinear term should also
lead to a uniquely decidable PD and thus the PD method can be
based on a filter model that takes into account cake compression
effects as well.
A filter medium that exhibits a permeability profile, i.e., it is
not homogeneous with respect to permeability, leads to a fast
pressure drop rise at the beginning of filtration. Consequently,
the filtration performance of such an inhomogeneous filter cloth
is reduced with respect to the pressure drop level and/or cycle
time when compared with a homogeneous filter cloth having the
same integral initial permeability. Thus, the PD gives a hint about
the unused potential, i.e., the difference between a homogeneous
permeability and an inhomogeneous distribution that can possi-
bly be utilized by a different dust/filter medium combination.
Operating a filter exhibiting a strong PD at relatively low pres-
sure drop levels is especially disadvantageous, since the slope
of the pressure drop curve is steepest in this range. Hence, fre-
quent filter cleaning is required to keep the desired pressure
drop level, i.e., short cycle times evolve, and the flatter asymp-
totical pressure drop slope is hardly utilized. In addition, the
achievable mean pressure drop level is relatively high, given the
required cleaning frequency. The downside of such operation is
filter medium wear due to excessive cleaning, solid breakthrough
during cleaning and initial filtration, and excessive cleaning air
consumption in the case of jet pulse cleaning.
As it is widely reported the performance of a filter depends
upon the combination of the filter medium and the dust. This
is accounted for by the PD method that gives a PD for exactly
the combination of filter medium and dust. Consequently the
 PD METHOD FOR FILTER MEDIA CHARACTERIZATION 443

PD could be different for the same filter medium but a different Dufrêche, J., Prat, M., Schmitz, P., and Sherwood J. D. (2002). On the Apparent
dust, which requires caution when trying to apply one PD to a Permeability of a Porous Layer Backed by a Perforated Plate, Chem. Engineer.
different system. Sci. 57: 2933–2944.
Duo, W., Kirkby, N. F., Seville, J. P. K., and Clift, R. (1997). Patchy Cleaning of
The PD of a filter medium can change during filter operation. Rigid Gas Filters—I. A Probabilistic Model, Chem. Engineer. Sci. 52: 141–
It is demonstrated that in a laboratory set-up this change of the 152.
PD can be observed and PDs determined from pressure drop Hirschmann, I. I., and Widder, D. V. (1955). The convolution transform. Prince-
data of industrial filter plants could be a useful tool to monitor ton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
the filtration characteristics over the life cycle of the filter bag. Hoff, D., Meyer, J., and Kasper, G. (2005). Influence of Filter Media Texture
on the Slope of the Differential Pressure Curve for Rigid Surface Filters at
High Temperatures, in International Conference & Exhibition for Filtration
NOTATION and Separation Technology, Proceedings, Filtech Exhibitions, Wiesbaden,
Germany: II-37–II-43.
A location on the filter, m2 Kavouras, A., and Krammer, G. (2003). Deriving Cake Detachment Versus Cake
A∗ dimensionless location on the filter Area Load in a Jet Pulsed Filter by a Mechanistic Model. Powder Technol.
133: 134–146.
Adist cumulative filter area, m2 Koch, D., Seville, J., and Clift, R. (1996). Dust Cake Detachment from Gas
Atot total area of filter, m2 Filters. Powder Technol. 86: 21–29.
csol solid concentration of raw gas reaching the filter, Koch, M., Saleem, M., Pucher, P., and Krammer, G. (2007). Condition-
kg m3 ing of Filter Bags with Reactive CaO and Ca(OH)2 Dust in Flue Gas,
k permeability, m in International Conference & Exhibition for Filtration and Separation
Technology, Proceedings, Filtech Exhibitions, Wiesbaden, Germany: II42–
k0 permeability at the beginning of filtration, m II49.
kc permeability attributed to filter cake, m Koch, M. (2008). Cake Filtration Modeling—Analytical Cake Filtration Model
m number of nodes for the discretized PD, − and Filter Medium Characterization. PhD thesis, Norwegian University of
ṁ c dust mass flow to filter, kg s−1 Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, available online.
pc pre-factor in Equation (20), Pa m Kozeny, J. (1927). Über die kapillare Leitung des Wassers im Boden, Sitz. Ber.
Akad. Wiss. Wien. Math. Nat. (Abt. IIa), 136a: 271–306.
s filter state, m−2 Leubner, H., and Riebel, U. (2001). Einfluss Der Oberflächenbeschaffenheit
t time, s Des Filtermediums Auf Den Spezifischen Staubkuchenwiderstand, Chemie
tc pre-factor in Equation (22), s m−1 Ingenieur Technik 73: 1320–1323.
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m3 s−1 ters and Envelope Filters. Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig/Wiesbaden,
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u abbreviation for k0−2 (Chapter 3), m−2 Process with a Flat-Type Fabric Filter. Advanced Powder Technol. 17(3):
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 cumulative area distribution function of perme- 106
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PD permeability distribution aration January/February: 42–48.

REFERENCES APPENDIX A: TIME TRANSFORMATION

Chen, C.-C., Chen W.-Y., Huang, S.-H., Lin, W.-Y., Kuo, Y.-M., and Jeng, The time transformation Equation (22) is obtained by
F.-T. (2001). Experimental Study on the Loading Characteristics of Needle- pure mathematical manipulating the definition of filter state
felt with Micrometer-Sized Monodisperse Aerosols, Aerosol Sci. Technol. 34: Equation (12). Derivation with respect to time yields:
262–273.
Dittler, A., and Kasper, G. (1999). Simulation of Operation Behaviour of Patchily
Regenerated Rigid Gas Cleaning Filter Media, Chem. Engineer. Process. 38: ds 2
=
p [A1]
321–327. dt pc tc
444 M. KOCH AND G. KRAMMER

Hereby the constants pc and tc , defined by Equations (19) and By changing the order of integration on the left-hand side one
(21), respectively, are used to replace the coefficients that ap- obtains:
pear in Equation (12) originally. Rearranging Equation (A1)  
gives: tc ∞ s
(u + s)− 2 ds d(u) = t
1
[A5]
2 0 0
pc tc 1 dt
= [A2]
2
p ds Evaluating the inner integral gives:

1 s
The pressure drop
p can be expressed by Equation (20): ∞
tc
2 (u + s) 2 0 d(u) = t
 ∞
2 0
tc dt
(u + s)− 2 d(u) =
1
[A3]
2 0 ds Using the boundaries of s gives:
Integration via s from zero to s yields:  ∞ 
1 1

 s tc (u + s) 2 − (u + 0) 2 d(u) = t [A6]
∞
tc 0
(u + s)− d(u)ds = t
1
2 [A4]
2 0 0 which is equivalent to the time transformation Equation (22).