Creating & Modeling Filter Pleats
PleatGeo
The PleatGeo module enables the modeling of flat as well as cylindrical filter pleats with freely varying pleat form. One of the main applications of flat filter pleats (flat filters, cassette filters) is air filtration, e.g. for cabin air filters. Here, the filter medium of the pleat can consist of several porous layers, which have different permeability values (material permeabilities). To ensure the stability of the filter pleats, it is also possible to model support structures and support meshes in PleatGeo. These functionalities allow to quickly design novel filters for different user requirements.
However, PleatGeo is also capable of producing cylindrically pleated filter elements (round filters, lamella filters). Cylindrical pleated filter elements are widely used as they provide a large filter area in limited space, with the well-known benefits of low pressure drop and high filter capacity. In order to optimize the performance of pleated filters, expensive and time-consuming measurements of filtration-relevant parameters are often necessary. In GeoDict, digital filter structures can be efficiently generated as well as simulated to calculate the filter performance. Subsequently, only the promising prototypes are produced and measured on the test bench.
In the modelling step, the pleat pack inner and outer diameter, inner radius at pleat valley and tip, the pleat height as well as the pleat count can be specified to customize the individually generated pleat structure.
In addition, PleatGeo can model both classic cylindrical filter pleats and M-shaped filter pleats. M-shaped filter pleats offer the advantage that not all pleats have the same pleat height and thus additional filter area is available with the same or reduced pressure drop.
Compared to the methodologies of Computer-Aided-Design (CAD), our 3d image-based approach works completely automatic and requires no manual meshing steps before the simulations can run. The simulation is calculated quickly and precisely by the efficient and memory-optimized numerical solvers. Thus, it is possible to calculate parameter studies automatically in a short time. Furthermore, our cloud solutions can further increase efficiency by running a large number of parallel simulations at the same time. This innovative simulation approach facilitates the development and testing of improved filter pleat structures and significantly reduces time to market.