CFD model validation of a bag filter for air filtration in a milling plant

Milling plants often adopt pneumatic conveying to transport grains or flour inside their pipes.The most common conveyor is air, which must be cleaned from solid particulate in suspension, before being released into the atmosphere. To ensure air depuration, a filtration system is installed at the end of the milling plant. Such systems typically consist of cyclones separators and bag filters. This paper presents the design and the validation of a computational fluid dynamic model for a pilot plant reproducing the mentioned air filtration system. The pilot plant, located inside a laboratory at the University of Parma, was equipped with sensors to collect velocity and pressure data. The comparison between the experimental values and those from the fluid dynamic simulations made the model validation possible and thereby achieving a robust predictive approach for the design of air filtration systems.