Particle deposition in ventilation duct onto three-dimensional roughness elements

Gaining insights on particle deposition onto ventilation duct has many important applications. One key pathway by which outdoor polluted air enters the indoor environment is through mechanical ventilation ducts. An experimental system was designed for the study of particle deposition on regular arrays of uniform elements (in the form of discrete protrusions) in a turbulent ventilation duct flow using monodisperse tracer small particles, in the range 0.7-7.1 μm. The Reynolds number for the test conditions was 44,000 in the 150 mm square duct. Four different types of uniform roughness elements were tested. Compared to earlier measurements in the same duct system involving smooth or ribbed surfaces, a significant increase (up to 74 times) in deposition velocity onto the regular roughness elements is observed.