Air filters Fractional efficiency Gas cleaning Glass fibre HEPA filter Permeability Pressure drop
Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) / Texas A&M University
AL-ATTAR, I.S. ... et al, 2011. Physical and chemical characterization of Kuwaiti atmospheric dust and synthetic dusts: effects on the pressure drop and fractional efficiency of HEPA filters. 10th International Conference for Enhanced Building Operations (ICEBO 2010), Safat, Kuwait, 26th-28th October.
The importance of clean air to the indoor air quality affecting the well-being of human occupants
and rising energy consumption has highlighted the critical role of air filter performance. Actual
performance of air filters installed in air handling units in Kuwait tends to deviate from the
performance predicted by laboratory results. Therefore, accurate filter performance prediction is
important to estimate filter lifetime, and to reduce energy and maintenance operating costs. To
ensure appropriate filter selection for a specific application, particulate contaminants existing in
Kuwaiti atmospheric dust were identified and characterized. This paper compares the physical and
chemical characterization of Kuwaiti atmospheric dust with the available commercial synthetic
dusts. It also tests full scale HEPA pleated V-shaped filters used in Heating Ventilation and Air
Conditioning (HVAC) and gas turbine applications. The effects of different synthetic dust types and
their particle size distributions on the pressure drop and fractional efficiency using DEHS testing
according to DIN 1822 is studied.