Full Article

FILTRATION OF PARTICLES THROUGH A SINGLE LAYER OF DUAL SCALE

FIBROUS POROUS MEDIA

Mourad Chohra1, Dr. Suresh G Advani1*, Dr. Shridhar Yarlagadda

1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Centre for Composite Materials,
University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed

E-mail: advani@udel.edu

Received 6 September 2007; accepted 12 November 2007

ABSTRACT
Functionally Graded Composites exhibit properties or functions within the material that vary gradually or in a
stepwise manner without a recognizable boundary. One technique to manufacture Functionally Graded Polymer
Composites is by a resin infusion process. In this process, preforms of glass, aramid or carbon fabric are
stacked in a closed mold and resin with suspended micron-sized particles is injected into the mold. The
preforms are usually fabrics with yarns or bundles of thousand or more micron-sized fibres woven, stitched or
knitted together. This architecture gives rise to a bimodal distribution of pore sizes; the larger pores in between
the bundles and smaller ones within the bundles. The dual-scale nature of the fabric creates a network of pore
sizes through which the resin will flow to cover the fibres, but the infiltration and the final concentration
distribution of the particles will establish the gradient of the properties in the composite. In this paper, we
present a model to predict the concentration distribution of particles within this dual-scale fibrous porous
media infused under a constant pressure drop. The approach uses Darcy’s law and accounts for lowering in the
permeability value due to the particle entrapment in the available pores. Experiments are conducted and the
concentration of the particles in the fabric is measured. The results compare well with the predictions despite
many assumptions made in the model. A non-dimensional analysis is conducted and a parametric study
explores the influence of critical non-dimensional parameters on the filtration efficiency.

1. INTRODUCTION potential candidates for existing and new applications.

The concept of Functionally Graded (or gradient)
materials (FGM), first proposed by Kawasaki and
Watanabe [1], enables the design of multifunctional
materials. These materials contain spatial variations
in composition and/or microstructure for the specific
purpose of controlling variations in thermal, structural
or functional properties, usually in the thickness
direction. FGM’s are used in a variety of applications
such as thermal barriers/antioxidant coatings, cutting
tools, thermoelectric materials, band pass filters, and
piezoelectric actuators, etc [2].
Polymer Matrix Composites (PMC) are superior to
traditional materials in several aspects such as high
strength-to-weight ratio, directional properties, high
corrosion resistance and potential to tailor properties.
Their propensity for tailorability and the ability to add
another “material” to grade the composite property
makes them ideal candidates for FGM. Modifying
PMC materials to be FGM will create a new class of
multifunctional composite materials and make them
The recent developments of new materials based on
nanoparticle fillers in polymeric matrices offer
opportunities to modify PMC into FGM by adjusting
the distribution of these fillers. Such fillers not only
enhance mechanical performance but also will
significantly improve other properties such as electrical
conductivity and abrasion resistance while maintaining
the low inherent density of polymers. Vacuum
Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM) naturally
lends itself to manufacture Functionally Graded
Composites. In VARTM (Fig. 1), fibre preforms are
placed on top of a tool surface. The opposite surface
is covered with a flow enhancement layer. This
assembly is placed under a vacuum by covering it
with a plastic bag. The resin containing the particles
can be introduced into the mold through an inlet
connected to the flow enhancement layer. The
suspension quickly floods the flow enhancement layer
and impregnates the fabric through the thickness. The
fibre preform acts as a filtration agent and can naturally

Advanced Composites Letters, Vol.16, Iss.6, 2007 205

 Mourad Chohra, Dr. Suresh G Advani, Dr. Shridhar Yarlagadda
 9DFXXPEDJ
)ORZHQKDQFHPHQWOD\HU
)LEHUSUHIRUPV
)LOWUDWLRQ
Fig.1: The schematic of the manufacturing procedure of Functionally Graded Composites using VARTM [45].
create graded particle distributions through the
thickness in the composite.
The fabrics are usually yarns or bundles of thousand
or more micron size fibres woven, stitched or knitted
together as shown in Fig. 2. This architecture gives
rise to a bimodal distribution of pore sizes; the larger
pores in between the bundles and smaller ones within
the bundles. This dual-scale nature of the fabrics
creates a network of pore sizes through which the
resin will flow to surround the fibres but the infiltration
and the final concentration distribution of the particles
will establish the gradient of the properties in the
composite.
The particle infiltration phenomenon through the dual
scale fibrous media will play a key role in this process
to obtain desired gradients in the properties of interest.
Classical filtration modelling through a homogeneous
porous media do not apply for manufacturing with
this process and materials due to the dual scale
heterogeneous nature of the fabric and the particle
size being comparable to the pore sizes in the fibre
preforms
Fig.2: Examples of fibre preforms commonly used for VARTM.
206
5HVLQZLWK 9DFXXP
VXVSHQGHGSDUWLFOHV
As a first step to understand the flow and distribution
of these particles within a fabric, this paper presents
a one-dimensional flow through the thickness of the
composite that models the filtration phenomena across
a single layer of dual scale fibrous porous media. An
experimental study of this phenomenon is also
conducted and the results are compared with the
simple model based on flow through porous network
in which the network resistance is allowed to change
as the particles block the pores. A non-dimensional
analysis reveals important parameters and their
influence on filtration efficiency.
2. BACKGROUND AND THEORY
Darcy’s law [3] is commonly used to describe flow
through porous media. This model has been extended
to include anisotropic fibrous materials and can be
written in a vector form as follows [4].
. (1)
X= ¾3
h
where u is the velocity vector, K is the second order
Advanced Composites Letters, Vol.16, Iss.6, 2007
 Filtration of Particles through a Single Layer of Dual Scale Fibrous Porous Media

permeability tensor of the porous medium, h is the
viscosity of the resin, and ¾3 is the pressure gradi-
ent across the porous medium. It has been shown
[5] that the classical form of this law is valid for sus-
pensions containing low volume fraction of particles.
consider in this study will be of the order of microns
and hence will fall in the regime of suspended particles.
The colloidal interactions such as Van der Waals
attraction and double layer interactions can thus be
neglected.

Einstein [6] derived a formula for the effective 2.1 Sieve Filtration-based modelling
viscosity of a fluid loaded with particles as: The sieve mechanism follows the simple physics of
entrapment [11, 12]: if the particle approaching the
m HII = m  + f  (2)
Where meff is the effective suspension's viscosity, m0
the viscosity of the fluid, and f the particles' volume
fraction.
It has been verified [7] that equation (2) describes
the viscosity with a good accuracy for particles vol-
ume fractions less than 3%. Above this limit, higher
order coefficients have to be introduced to capture
the increase in viscosity of the suspension:
{ }
mHII = m  + f + lf  + uf  +  (3)
The filtration mechanism in this process depends on
the particle sizes, type of porous media, fluid flow
rates, and mechanical and physicochemical
interactions of the particle-fluid-filter material system
[8, 9]. The commonly considered mechanisms are
the following [10]: (i) Particles captured by sieving
(occurs when a particle is physically too large to pass
through the pores in the filter media) (ii) Interception
of the particles by the fibres and (iii) Particles captured
by pores or directly by fibres through particle-particle
or particle-fibre interactions. The last category of
deposition mechanism depends on external forces
such as gravity and hydrodynamic drag. For instance,
the gravity force is proportional to the mass of the
particle and hence to the cube of the particle size.
The hydrodynamic forces, as a result of fluid flow,
depend roughly on the square of particle size. This
means that for large particles, gravitational and drag
forces will dominate.
Particles are usually classified according to their size
range [10] (i) Dispersed particles sizes range from
fractions of a millimetre to macromolecular (ii)
Suspended particles are larger than approximately 1
ìm and (iii) Colloidal particles range between
molecules or atoms and are smaller than
approximately 1 nm. The particle sizes that we
Advanced Composites Letters, Vol.16, Iss.6, 2007
pore has a diameter less than the pore, then the particle
goes through the pore. If the particle’s diameter is
larger than that of the pore, then the membrane retains
the particle. This particle blocks the pore and the
hydrodynamic resistance of the membrane increases.
In most of the macroscopic models of particles
deposition, a stochastic approach is used. The
collection medium as well as the particles flow are
considered as matrices.
A model based on the “sieve mechanism” is presented
in [13]. The medium matrix has a hetero-porous
structure where the probability density function of non-
uniform pore-size distribution has been approximated
by the Maxwell distribution. Others have applied this
approach and concept to the distributions of
contaminant particles in a porous medium in time and
space [14] and [15].
2.2 Flow based modelling
Another way to model the filtration phenomenon is to
determine the particle’s trajectories within the
collector. Sieve mechanism can then be considered
to determine the deposition. An accurate analytical
model based on particle trajectory analysis to
understand and describe particle deposition and its
effect on collection efficiency of porous media has
been developed [16]. Particles originate at random
positions on the radius of the fluid envelope in
proportion to the volumetric flow rate through the area
elements. Then, the trajectory of a particle
approaching the collector is assumed to coincide with
fluid streamlines, which is valid when hydrodynamic
forces dominate. From this assumption, particle
collection through interception can be evaluated.
Because of the complicated three-dimensional and
stochastic nature of the deposition process, these
filtration models have been of limited predictive value
since they still contain model parameters that cannot
207
 Mourad Chohra, Dr. Suresh G Advani, Dr. Shridhar Yarlagadda

be measured or estimated. a0 (5)

2.3 Governing equations for flow
Assuming that particles are homogeneously distributed
and suspended within the fluid, one can use Darcy’s
law through the different regions of the porous media
to evaluate particles deposition. The sieve and flow
based approaches apply only to the initial stage of
filtration. To model the filtration process in its entirety
other important parameters have to be taken into
account, such as the effect of deposited particles on
5F =
$
where a is the cake’s specific resistance, A is
filtration area, M is the dry cake’s mass and DP is
the pressure drop over both the particles’ cake and
the filtration medium.
The specific resistance a of a cake made of densely
packed particles may be calculated from the Carman-
Kozeny equation as:
the flow and thus on deposition rate.
The amount of particles deposited during the filtration
process is usually called particle cake. Flow through
the particle cake has been studied in the field of “cake
filtration.” Equations for the compressibility and
permeability of the cake are required. In the case of
laminar flow, even if other methods can be used [19],
the relation between liquid velocity and liquid pressure
drop is commonly described by application of Darcy’s
law (1) as schematically shown in Fig. 3 and expressed
as follows:
 - e  (6)
a=
r ' e 
where å is the pore volume fraction (on the order of
0.26 for densely packed particles), D the mean
diameter of the particles, and r is their density.
Almost all cakes formed of biological materials are
compressible, and so cannot be described with the
simple equations (5) and (6). As these cakes
compress, filtration rates drop. In that case, the well
known Ruth’s modification of Darcy’s law [22] is used
to describe the flow:
-
$D3 Ò m5 m r a V9 W  â (7)
4=Ó +
I

(4) ã
P
4= 
m  5P + 5F  Ô $D3  $ D3  - PV  ä
here Q is the filtrate flow rate, A is the area of the
membrane, ì the kinematic viscosity of the solvent,
Rm the hydraulic resistance of the porous media, and
Rc the resistance of the particle cake.
For the case of an incompressible cake [20, 21], which
is a good assumption if the suspension is under high
fluid pressure, the cake’s resistance Rc is expressed
as follows [20]:
where Q is the filtrate flow rate, A is the area of the
membrane, ì the kinematic viscosity of the filtrate,
Rm is the hydraulic resistance of the porous media, s
is the mass fraction of particles in the slurry, ñ is the
density of the filtrate, m is the ratio of wet to dry cake
mass, a is the average specific resistance of the cake
and Vf(t) is the cumulative filtrate volume. From this
expression, the resistance due to the cake region can
be expressed as:

 9W
9W

FDNH 5F



3 3
PHPEUDQH 
5P


Fig.3: Resistance equivalence of a porous medium covered with a particle cake.

208 Advanced Composites Letters, Vol.16, Iss.6, 2007

 Filtration of Particles through a Single Layer of Dual Scale Fibrous Porous Media

r a V9 W  9 W  + e 
5 = I
(8) / W  = I

(12)
 $ - PV  Ør Ò â è
F

$ Ù Ó - ã - e é
V

The ratio of wet to dry cake mass m is related to the Úr ÔV ä ê

average porosity e of the cake and the densities of These relations that describe cake filtration can be
the particles (ñs) and the filtrate (ñ) as follows: used to model the particles deposition during filtration
through a dual scale porosity fibrous media that is
r e
P = + (9) presented in the next section.
r V  - e 
To estimate the effects of compressibility on both the
average specific cake resistance a  and the average
porosity of the cake e , they are assumed to be func-
tions of the pressure drop. To characterize cake com-
pressibility, the following equations are commonly
used [23, 24].
3. FLOW PHYSICS
A suspension loaded with a known particle volume
fraction flows through a fibrous preform as shown
schematically in Fig. 4.
Fibre preforms, as seen in Fig. 5b, involve a dual scale
a = a   - QD3 Q (10) pore size in which the pores between the fibres within
a fibre tow are an order of magnitude smaller than
e = e  - E ORJD3  (11)
Here 0, 0, n and b are empirically determined coef-
ficients. These empirical constants directly depend
on the nature of the materials used for the particulate
loading. For instance in [25], specific resistances for
three chemical cakes were determined by laboratory
filtrations. This showed that specific filtration resis-
tance depends on the material and could be predicted
from compression-permeability test data. From these
results and based on the material balance, the height
L(t) of the cake was determined [23] as a function of
time as:
 VOXUU\
ILOWUDWH
Fig. 4: Schematic of particle suspension flowing through
a fibrous preform
the pores in between the fibres within the bundles.
Thus the physics of infiltration will be substantially
different from a classical filtration problem through a
porous media with a single scale porosity such as the
random preform shown in Fig. 5a. Classical filtration
modelling includes a microscale (of the order of the
collector size) and a macroscale, comparable to the
filter external size. Because of the dual scale poros-
ity present in the woven fabrics, there is an additional
mesoscale which is characterized by the average size
of macropores and tows [26, 27] (Fig. 6).
The spatial inhomogeneities produce a nonuniform
mesoscale pressure gradient distribution within the
filter material. Since this pressure gradient is propor-
tional
to the local mesoscale velocity via Darcy's law [28],
particles move with different mesoscale velocities in
different parts of the filter material. This non-uniform
mesoscale velocity distribution results in different
microscopic velocity fields.

D E

Fig. 5: a) A preform with single scale porosity (random mat). b) A preform with dual scale porosity (woven preform).

Advanced Composites Letters, Vol.16, Iss.6, 2007 209

 Mourad Chohra, Dr. Suresh G Advani, Dr. Shridhar Yarlagadda

 D
6XVSHQVLRQZLWKDJLYHQYROXPHIUDFWLRQRI
SDUWLFOHV
0DFURVFDOH 3RURXVPHGLXP
0LFURVFDOH &ROOHFWRUV
Fig. 6: a) Scales involved in classical filtration. b) Introduction of a intermediary scale for preforms with dual porosity
(woven preform).
This multiscale filtration phenomenon will be a func-
tion of material and process parameters. The pro-
cess is primarily driven by the externally applied pres-
sure, DP. The material parameters include suspen-
sion properties such as the incoming volume fraction
of particle profile, the diameter of particles, and the
viscosity of the suspension. The woven fabric intro-
duces additional material parameters which include
the fibre architecture, the permeability of the differ-
ent region of the fabric, the distribution of pores, and
fibre diameters along with their fibre volume frac-
tion. This process will also require one to introduce
empirical parameters to model the cake resistance.
The meso pore scale between the fibre tows is as-
sumed to be much larger than that of the particle.
The consequence is that particles do not deposit in
the meso pore region. On the other hand, we con-
sider particles that are larger than the micropores
present within an individual fibre tow. This will result
in deposition of particles by the sieving action in this
region. Consequently, the determination of flow
through the different regions of the heterogeneous

E
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preform will fully determine the particle deposition as
a function of time. All the particles in the path of fibre
tows will deposit on the fibre tows, whereas the par-
ticles in the path of the meso pores between the fibre
tows will be able to filter through. For particles in
between, one would have to develop certain criteria
for filtration or deposition. Thus the model for filtra-
tion phenomenon will have to reflect the suspension
flow through the various regions of the media.
4. FILTRATION MODELING
The flow with uniformly suspended particles will be
modeled as one dimensional flow across the dual-
scale porous structure. The different paths of the flow
through the porous media are determined using
Darcy's law (1) applied to a unit cell of preform de-
fined in Fig. 7. Each unit cell is considered to consist
of two different permeabilities due to the architec-
ture of the preform. These two scales offer two dif-
ferent resistances to the flow in parallel subjected to
the same pressure drop.
Applying Darcy's law as shown in equation (1) in
4W

3RUH
m5 m 5 SRUH
3RUH 7RZ 3 WRZ

$ WRZ
$SRUH
7RZ XQLW
D FHOO E

Fig. 7: a) Schematics of the considered unit cell in dual scale porosity preform. b) Resistance to flow analogy.

210 Advanced Composites Letters, Vol.16, Iss.6, 2007

 Filtration of Particles through a Single Layer of Dual Scale Fibrous Porous Media
both the pore and the tow regions, the flow compo-
nents through these two regions can be fully deter-
mined if one knows the pressure drop through the
preform DP and the resistances to the flow in the
macro pore region Rpore and within the fibre tow re-
gion, Rtow respectively.
Because of the elliptic shape of the surrounding tows,
the actual thickness of the pore is very small and the
lubrication approximation cannot be used to evaluate
its resistance to the flow. In 1891, R. A. Sampson
[29] first solved the pressure-driven flow of a
Newtonian fluid at low Reynolds number through an
infinitesimally thin circular hole in an unbounded rigid
plane wall using oblate spheroidal coordinates. His
theoretical value of pressure drop has been substan-
tiated with experiments [30]. Sampson's results for a
plane orifice can be expressed as:
4 m
D3 = (13)
5
Where Q is the volume flow rate of the fluid and R is
the radius of the hole in the orifice plane.
resistance of the flow through a screen of parallel
strips. Models commonly use Samspon's and
Hasimoto's expressions to describe resistance to flow
through holes [33, 34, 35].
To describe the resistance within a fibre tow, one can
find the permeability of the fibre tow. A frequently
employed expression to model permeability has been
given by Carman and Kozeny [21]. Empirical rela-
tions are also widely used in the composites field [36,
37]. The Carman-Kozeny equation provides an ex-
pression for the permeability of an array of aligned
cylinders based on the volume fraction, the cylinder
radius, and a single constant. However, due to the
ambiguity of this equation, especially regarding the
constant [38, 39], most of recent works tend to favour
using permeability relations determined from experi-
mental data. For our study, the permeability of the
tow region was also experimentally determined.
4.1 Particle Deposition
At every time step Dt the volume of particles depos-
ited is given by:
For the case in which the hole isn't infinitely thin, an
additional resistance to flow has to be considered. To
take into account this contribution a linear combina-
tion of Sampson flow and Poiseuille flow has been
assumed [31]. This leads to the following results for
the flow rate through an orifice of thickness L:
Ò / â
m 4 Ó  + ã
9GHS W + DW  - 9GHS W  = fLQ 4W W DW (16)
Where fin is the volume fraction of particles in the
filtered suspension, Qt(t) is the suspension flow rate
through the tow region at the current time.
By simple integration, the total volume of particles
deposited can be evaluated as:
W

Ô p5ä (14) 9 W  = f Þ 4 x G x (17)

D3 = GHS LQ W

5 

Equating this to average velocity pressure drop rela- Where 4 W  = $9 W  $  being the cross section
W W W W

tionship, the resistance of a circular pore is given by: of the tow region. Obviously, Qt(t) is a function of
time as the tow region resistance is a function of the
Ò / â amount of particles deposited. To determine it, we
Ó  + p 5 ã $S (15)
5S = Ô 
ä have to relate the deposition to the resistance of the
5 tow region.
As the hole is not circular but rectangular, one could
use the hydraulic radius here to represent a non-cir- The deposition of particles, denoted as cake of par-
cular hole. Here Ap is the cross section of the hole. ticles, will create an additional resistance to the flow
Another important case is a screen with square holes which is a function of the amount of particles depos-
in a square array. No analytic solution is yet known ited and thus of time (Fig. 8).
to model the resistance for a single square hole. How-
ever a theoretical asymptotic form can be obtained The total resistance of the tow region in a unit cell is
from [32] where Hasimoto derived the theoretical thus equivalent to two resistances in series, a con-

Advanced Composites Letters, Vol.16, Iss.6, 2007 211

 Mourad Chohra, Dr. Suresh G Advani, Dr. Shridhar Yarlagadda


ILEHUVWRZ 4WW
LQLWLDOVWDWH
m 5F W 
FDNHRISDUWLFOHV $W
WLPH
m 5 W

$ W

D E

Fig. 8: a) Schematics of the cake build-up during filtration through a tow. b) Time dependent cake resistance to flow
introduced in the tow region.

stant resistance due to the presence of tows and a $ +$

5 = (19)
W S

time dependent resistance due to the cake build up as WRWDO

$ $
W
+ S

the particles deposit on the fibre tows. 5

WRZ + FDNH W  5 W 
S

We consider for the case of this study that the cake 4.3 Solution Methodology
is compressible. Hence, we use the results of the Ruth From these different laws and applying the deposi-
equation (7) to describe the flow in the tow and cake tion mechanism considered, an algorithm was formu-
regions. In addition, the cake's average specific re- lated to evaluate the particles' deposition as a func-
sistance and porosity are determined using the em- tion of time.
pirical relations (10) and (11).
 ,QSXWYDOXHVRI
GLIIHUHQWSDUDPHWHUV
4.2 Effective resistance
8VHWKHYDOXHRIFDNH
As illustrated in Fig. 7, a unit cell within a preform is UHVLVWDQFHIURPWKH
SUHYLRXV VWHS
made up of 2 resistances in series corresponding to
(1' ,QFUHPHQWWLPH
the tow region and the meso pore region respectively. &DOFXODWHYDOXHVRI
IORZUDWHVLQGLIIHUHQW
We have shown before that the total resistance of UHJLRQV <HV

the tow and particle cake region Rtow+cake is repre- (YDOXDWHGHSRVLWLRQ /DVWWLPH
IURPWKHIORZUDWHLQ VWHS" 1R
sented by a total resistance that combines the cake WKH WRZ UHJLRQ
resistance and the tow resistance in series: &DOFXODWHWKHWRWDO
PDVVRISDUWLFOHV
5 + FDNH W  =5 + 5 W  (18)
WRZ WRZ F
The resistance of the pore region before the flow of
the suspension initiates is given by Sampson's flow in
equation (13). Because the particles deposit in the
tow region it results in the increase of the pore's ef-
fective thickness equivalent to the cake's thickness
denoted by L(t). This value can be easily evaluated
using equation (12).
The total resistance of the pore's region can then be
evaluated at any time using the generalization of
Sampson's equation (15) to describe the resistance
of a hole of thickness L(t).
The total resistance of a unit cell can be expressed
by:
212
GHSRVLWHGDQGWKH
FDNH¶V WKLFNQHVV
(YDOXDWHFDNH
UHVLVWDQFHDQGWKH
SRUHUHVLVWDQFHIRU
WKHQH[WWLPHVWHS
Fig. 9: Algorithm for particles deposition through dual
scale fibrous media.
The algorithm was written and run on Maple [40] to
get the particles distributions as a function of time.
The input parameters are listed in Table 1.
5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
As time progresses, the results show an increase of
particles deposition, the rate of which decreases with
time. Indeed, because of the increase of the cake
resistance and as the suspension is subjected to a
Advanced Composites Letters, Vol.16, Iss.6, 2007
 Filtration of Particles through a Single Layer of Dual Scale Fibrous Porous Media

Table 1: Input parameters for the simulation.

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Fig. 10: a) Total mass of particles deposited as a function of time for various particles volume fractions in the slurry
(0.26%, 0.52%, 1.05%, 1.6%, 2.2%, and 2.75%). b) Total resistance of the preform and particles as a function of time
for the same particles volume fraction.

constant pressure drop across the fabric, the flow both the tow and the cake region being known from
through the tow region will decrease with time which equation (12) the total volume of the effective pre-
will result in less particles being trapped in it (Fig. form can be calculated as:
10a). The resistance of the preform can be deter-
9GHS W 
mined from the resistance analogy of a unit cell (Fig. I S W  = (20)
7). We observe a significant increase of the resis-
tance with time due to the particle deposition (Fig.
10b).
To correlate the particles deposition with the even-
tual properties of the preform, it is more convenient
to express the volume fraction of particles in the ef-
fective medium fp(t). This can be easily calculated
from the value of the volume of particles deposited
given in equation (17). In addition, the thickness of
Advanced Composites Letters, Vol.16, Iss.6, 2007
$W  + + / W  + $S / W 
The results show that the volume fraction of particles
in the effective medium tends to a steady state
(Fig.11) of 70% in the case of the preform modeled
in Table 1.
5.1 Validation of the model
5.1.1.Material Parameter determination
An experimental validation of the model proposed was
carried out and is presented here. The preform used
213
 Mourad Chohra, Dr. Suresh G Advani, Dr. Shridhar Yarlagadda

P
XL
GH
P
H
KW
QL (IIHFWLYHPHGLXP
QR
LW
FD
UI
H
P
XO
RY
V
OHF
LW
UD
S WLPHV

Fig. 11: Volume fraction of particles in the effective medium as a function of time, in the case of the simulations
considered in Table 1.


0LFURVFRSH

,PDJHDQDO\VLV

3UHIRUPWREHDQDO\]HG

Fig. 12: Determination of the pore area distribution using image analysis. The macropores allow the light to pass and
the illuminated area is calculated

for the experiments was a S-2 Glass 15 x 15 woven
fabric.
Its different characteristics needed for modelling were
measured. Due to deformation from shear, especially
during cutting operations, pore size distribution may
vary. To avoid this, fibres were cut using a laser, which
doesn't affect the pores size and the shape of pre-
forms. The pore size distribution is measured by mi-
croscopy and image analysis, through the diffusion of
light through the preform. Then the light spots were
measured to determine the different dimensions
needed. Using the same approach, the area of the
University of Delaware [41] predicts the impregna-
tion of the fibre preform with resin in closed molding
processes such as Resin Transfer Molding (RTM)
and Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding
(VARTM). To address the dual scale porosity, stan-
dard 2D or 3D mesh elements are combined with 1D
elements, which are attached at each node, to repre-
sent the fibre tows. An approach to determine the
fibre tow permeability by comparing the inlet pres-
sure profile from LIMS with the experimental inlet
pressure profile of the fabric was used [42]. Using
this approach, the fibre tow permeability was found
to be . = - P  . The particles used are
WRZ

tow region for average unit cell is measured through
microscopy and image analysis. Knowing the aver-
age dimensions of the pores, the Sampson flow equa-
tion was used to determine the resistance of the pore
region.
A three dimensional simulation called Liquid Injec-
tion Molding Simulation (LIMS), developed at the
214
aluminum oxide particles (Al2O3) with an average
particles size of 15 microns. The density of the par-
ticles, r, is 3.93 g/cm3. Water was used as the sus-
pending fluid for the particles.
5.2 Experimental Approach
5.2.1 Suspension Preparation
An experimental set up was designed to obtain re-
Advanced Composites Letters, Vol.16, Iss.6, 2007
 Filtration of Particles through a Single Layer of Dual Scale Fibrous Porous Media

peatable results and avoid the effects of disturbances
that naturally occur during filtration experiments.
During the particles transport, particles do have a ten-
dency to form aggregates. This will make the par-
ticle volume fraction non-uniform and violate the as-
sumption in our model. To promote uniform mixing,
we used an online static mixer to shear and break
B is a constant and depends on the tubing used for
the set-up. It is a coefficient expressed in ml min-1
V-1 that converts the calculated flow rate to the ap-
propriate voltage for the pump. The second scale was
added to measure and confirm the actual flow Q2'(t)
of the suspension dispensed from the container (2).
It can be calculated using mass conservation prin-
ciples:
any aggregates in the incoming suspension. The mix- DP W 

ing also ensured that the volume fraction was uni-
form before infusion. To continuously evaluate and
maintain the incoming volume fraction of the particles
in the suspension, an inline measurement and PID
controlled mixing station [43] was used to ensure
constant mixing ratio between particles and fluid
through the use of a computer controlled peristaltic
pump.
The procedure to control the peristaltic pump involved
two electronic scales. As shown in Fig. 13, container
(1) placed on the first scale was filled with the sus-
pending fluid only (in our case, water). Container (2)
placed on the second electronic scale contained con-
centrated suspension of particles in the same sus-
pending fluid which was water for our case. The mixer
in container (2) ensured that the suspension main-
tained uniform volume fraction without any aggre-
gate formation. The goal here is to mix the suspend-
ing fluid from container (1) and the concentrated sus-
pension from container (2) in a proportion to maintain
the desired volume fraction of the suspension to be
injected across the fibre preform. The in-line static
mixer ensured that the volume fraction was uniform
before it infiltrated the fibre preform.
The control algorithm used to accomplish this was as
follows: electronic scale (1) monitored the weight loss
of the tank, Dm1; at each adjustable time step Dt a
supervisory computer uses this information to com-
pute the flow rate through a Lab view application
[44]. Knowing material parameters such as suspen-
sion density and volume fraction r in container (2)
the flow rate Q2(t) necessary from the container 2 to
obtain the desired volume fraction f, is calculated as
follows:
4 W  =
(22)

r DW

The fluid pressure could cause the compliant preform
(fabric) to bend and deform non-uniformly in the dif-
ferent regions of the sample as illustrated in Fig. 14.
To prevent deformation, the fabric was pre-infused
with an epoxy resin along the edges to make it stiffer.
5.3 Variables Measured
To start the experiment, container (1) was filled with
the suspending fluid. Container (2) was filled with
the suspension with volume fraction r. The two were
infused into the preform after an on-line mixing op-
eration was performed through a static mixture by
which we could control the incoming particle volume
fraction. Following variables were measured as a
function of time during the experiment:
- influent (in coming) particles volume fraction.
The mix in line station (Fig. 13) provides us with this
information; since the volume fraction of particles in
(2) is known, the actual suspension volume fraction
can be calculated knowing the mass of the different
fluids being used.
- effluent (out going) particles volume fraction.
To measure particles volume fraction after it had
passed through the fibre preform, we measured and
collected the mass of suspension going through the
fabric for a selected time interval. After the suspend-
ing fluid was evaporated, we were able to recover
the particles and measure their mass to find the ef-
fluent particle volume fraction. We collected the fil-
trate every 30 second intervals to track the change in
volume fraction of the suspension passing through the
UDP W 
4 W  = f  (21) fabric.
r  DW%

Advanced Composites Letters, Vol.16, Iss.6, 2007 215

 Mourad Chohra, Dr. Suresh G Advani, Dr. Shridhar Yarlagadda

3UHVVXUHJDJH

6WDWLFPL[HU



 3UHIRUP
&RQWLQXRXVPL[LQJ

  
 
6FDOH
  6FDOH
ZDWHU ZDWHUSDUWLFOHV 
 3HULVWDOWLFSXPS

Fig. 13: Experimental setup used for the filtration experiments.



 (SR[\

 'U\
 SUHIRUP



Fig. 14. a) left: schematics of the preform deformation through the action of pressure. b) right: sample preparation to
avoid bending.

- flow rate resistance of the preform to the flow.

To track how the permeability of the fabric changed
with particle deposition, we needed to measure the
flow rate of the suspension for the applied pressure
drop across the preform. Flow rate was easily mea-
sured knowing the volume of filtrate at each time step
and the pressure drop was controlled as an input vari-
able.
- mass of particles deposited on the fabric
Knowing the particle content as well as the flow rate
of suspension infusing the preform, the quantity of
particles deposited was calculated from the quantity
of particles collected in the filtrate.
5.4 Experimental Results
The parameters of the experiments that were used in
In addition, for the particle volume fraction range
considered, the resistance to flow did change as more
particles deposited and was experimentally measured
which also qualitatively correlates with the model's
prediction (Fig. 16). This feature is only due to the
dual scale nature of the fibre preform.
6. PARAMETRIC STUDY
A dimensionless analysis was carried out to under-
stand the role of various parameters in the model. In
filtration literature, the particles' deposition in a me-
dia is generally described by the non-dimensional fil-
tration efficiency that describes the ability of the
considered filter to capture particles from the slurry.
It is generally defined as:
f -f (23)
h= LQ RXW

our model are listed in Table 2. f LQ

The model was run for different incoming volume where f and fRXW are respectively the influent and
LQ

fraction profiles. Fig. 15 compares the model results the effluent particles' volume fractions.
with the experimental data. The results correlated
quite well for mass of particles deposited, as well as

216 Advanced Composites Letters, Vol.16, Iss.6, 2007

 Filtration of Particles through a Single Layer of Dual Scale Fibrous Porous Media

Table 2: Input parameters for the simulation of the experiment.

3URFHVVSDUDPHWHUV
3UHVVXUH 3 3VL
([SHULPHQWWLPH W V
,QDYHUDJHVXFFHVVLYHO\
DQG
,QFRPLQJSDUWLFOHV¶YROXPHIUDFWLRQ 
f 
LQ
7KHH[DFWSURILOHRILQFRPLQJ
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IURPWKHPL[LQOLQHVWDWLRQ
3DUWLFOHV¶GHQVLW\  JFP 
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)DEULFSDUDPHWHUV
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5DGLXVRIWKHSRUHUHJLRQ 5  P
5HVLVWDQFHRIWRZUHJLRQ 5 =  P - 
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5HVLVWDQFHRISRUHUHJLRQ )URP6DPSVRQHTXDWLRQ
(PSLULFDOSDUDPHWHUV
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  Q

Q  


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 J


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LV  WLV


RS RS
HG  HG


VHO VOH 

FLW FWL
UD  UD


SI
RV  SI 

VD RV
P  VD 

     
P 
     
WLPHPLQXWHV WLPHPLQXWHV

H[S H[S H[S H[S H[S H[S

VLP VLP VLP VLP VLP VLP

Fig. 15: Total mass of particles deposited as a function of time for various incoming volume fractions profiles,
modelling (dashed) and experimental (plain) results.

( (
( (
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
( (

( (
( (
             

 

H[S H[S H[S H[S H[S H[S

VLP VLP VLP VLP VLP VLP

Fig. 16: Apparent resistance to flow as a function of time for various incoming volume fractions profiles, modelling
(dashed) and experimental (plain) results.

Advanced Composites Letters, Vol.16, Iss.6, 2007 217

 Mourad Chohra, Dr. Suresh G Advani, Dr. Shridhar Yarlagadda

Considering this non-dimensional parameter to de-
scribe filtration, this study involves a total of 11 pa-
rameters presented in Table 3.
efficiency on a single curve if one non-dimensionalizes
the time correctly for any type of preform or par-
ticles. To illustrate this, simulations were conducted
for the f values presented in Table 1 while varying
LQ

Buckingham Pi theorem was used to identify 8 non- the other non dimensional products (3 different val-
dimensional parameters: ues considered for each of the non dimensional pa-
5 rameters). For every set of non dimensional param-
D3W
P = f P  = 5 57 P = P = eters considered, the curves corresponding to the dif-
$ m
LQ

W
ferent f values could be collapsed using the non di-
LQ

P = h P = Q P = e P = a W  D3 Q+ mensional time presented before and choosing the

right value for a (Fig.18).
As we are interested in the filtration efficiency h ,
we can write: 7. CONCLUSIONS
P  = h = ) P  P   P  P   P   P   P  A model that combines sieve and flow equations is
developed to describe particle filtration through dual
The determination of a constitutive equation that will scale porosity media at low particle volume fractions.
give the filtration efficiency h as a function of the The results are validated with an experimental study.
whole set of parameters is not relevant here. How- It has been shown that the filtration efficiency
ever it can be shown that the results of different fil- achieves a steady state and is a function of a dimen-
tration simulations with various particles incoming sionless number and the particle volume fraction.
concentrations f can be collapsed on a master curve
LQ

using a non dimensional time W expressed as: The model presented takes into account only the siev-
W m . ing mechanism to drive filtration. Interception and
W= with WF = (24) interactions between the contaminant and the collec-
WF D3fLQ D  $
tors are neglected. As only low particle volume frac-
Where the parameter a maybe a function of all the tions were investigated, the collisions between par-
non dimensional parameters, K is the initial value of ticles that may lead to deposition within the meso pores
the permeability of the preform, A is the area of a unit for high particles volume fractions (Fig. 19) were
cell of the preform. neglected.

This methodology can be used to collapse filtration The case of particles larger than the meso pores was

Table 3: Total parameters to be input in the simulation and their units.

3DUDPHWHUVDQGWKHLUXQLWV
3UHVVXUH D3 >3D@
([SHULPHQWWLPH W >V@
,QFRPLQJSDUWLFOHV¶YROXPHIUDFWLRQ f >@
LQ

6XVSHQVLRQ¶VYLVFRVLW\ m >3DV@
$UHDRIWKHWRZUHJLRQ $ >P@
W

7KHSRUHUDGLXV 5 >P@
5HVLVWDQFHRIWRZUHJLRQ 57 >P@
7KHFRPSUHVVLELOLW\FRHIILFLHQW Q >@
7KHDYHUDJHFDNHSRURVLW\ e >@
7KHVSHFLILFFDNHUHVLVWDQFH a  >PNJ 3DQ@
5HVXOWSDUDPHWHU
7KHILOWUDWLRQHIILFLHQF\ h >@

218 Advanced Composites Letters, Vol.16, Iss.6, 2007

 Filtration of Particles through a Single Layer of Dual Scale Fibrous Porous Media

f = 
LQ

f = 
LQ

f = 
LQ

f = 
LQ

f = 
LQ


f = 
LQ

Fig. 17: Non-dimensional filtration efficiency as a function of non-dimensional time for the case of the
simulation considered in table 1. The a exponent of equation (24) was evaluated to be a=1.5.

 5 D3W
3DUDPHWHU P  = 5 57  3DUDPHWHU P = 3DUDPHWHU P  =
$W
m

 P  D = 
P P
D =   D = 

h
 

h
 P  D =  h
 
\ \ \
F F F
Q Q
LH
Q
H P  D = 
LH L
F F LF
L
II
LI
P II
H
 P  D = 
I
H
 D = H
Q Q  Q
R
LW
R
L LR
W W
D
U
D
U
D
U
OWL
 P  D = 
WO
LI  P  D =  WO
L
I I

QRQGLPHQVLRQDOWLPH W  QRQGLPHQVLRQDOWLPH W  QRQGLPHQVLRQDOWLPH W 

Fig. 18: Non-dimensional filtration efficiency as a function of non-dimensional time in which a non dimensional
product ( 2 in a), 3 in b), 4 in c)) has been varied using 3 different values. The values of 2, 3 and 4 were calculated
on the basis of table 1. The a exponent equation (24) had to be determined for each case for the curves to collapse.


 not addressed here, but should be a straight forward

extension of the work presented. The methodology

h
 could be combined with stochastic analysis and ex-
\ 
F
Q tended to model multiple layers of fabric which will
LH
F
LI
I

address the concentration gradient of the particles
H

Q  through the thickness [45].
LR
W
D
U 
WO
LI
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

          The authors gratefully acknowledge the support pro-
WLPHPLQ
vided by Office of Naval Research under Grant
H[S VLP
N00014-06-1-1000.
Fig. 19: Filtration efficiency for high volume fraction of
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Advanced Composites Letters, Vol.16, Iss.6, 2007 221