INERTIAL DEPOSITION OF PARTICLES FROM POTENTIAL FLOWS PAST CYLINDER ARRAYS

We exploit the computationally efficient method of images (MOI) to cre ate steady potential flows past finite and infinite circular cylinder arrays, in order to study inertial impaction of particles on them. Alt hough such flows are often encountered in practice (e.g. high Reynolds number ''dusty gas'' flows past heat exchanger tube banks and filter screens), little is yet known about the proximity effects of adjacent collectors on the capture efficiency of any particular collector in th e array. Our results for linear, symmetric arrays in steady cross-flow , containing an odd number of collectors (from three to infinity), ove r a wide range of array spacings, support the conjecture that an appro priately defined effective Stokes number based on the stagnation regio n fluid deceleration rate (computed and reported here as a function of the number of collectors and their spacing) can adequately correlate, for practical purposes, the capture efficiency of a representative co llector in the array. This scheme, combined with well-known correlatio ns for an isolated collector, simplifies significantly the task of est imating inertial impaction rates on aerodynamically interacting collec tors.