Modeling Inertial Deposition of Aerosol Particles in Geometrically Complicated Flow Systems Using Finite Element Methods

This work presents a modeling approach for calculating the trajectories of aerosol particles in geometrically complicated flow systems. The finite-element based modeling is first validated by comparing the calculated inertial deposition with literature values for two cases of laminar flow: a 90-degree bend and an abrupt contraction of a pipe. The approach is then applied on a multi-part aerosol instrument used for Cantilever-Enhanced-Photo-Acoustic-Spectroscope (CEPAS) measurements. The particle transmission of the CEPAS is experimentally measured and compared to the modeling results. It is demonstrated that the model provides valuable insight on the inertial deposition losses by pinpointing their physical locations within the measurement instrument.