LAUSR

Abstract Aqueous filtration systems with granular media are increasingly implemented as a unit operation for the treatment of urban waters. Many of these aqueous filtration systems are designed with coarse granular media and are therefore subject to finite granular Reynolds numbers ( R e g ). In contrast to the R e g conditions generated by such designs, current hydrosol filtration models, such as the Yao and RT models, rely on a flow solution that is derived within the Stokes limit at low R e g . In systems that are subject to these finite and higher R e g regimes, the collector efficiency has not been examined. Therefore, in this study, we develop a 3D periodic porosity-compensated face-centered cubic sphere (PCFCC) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model, with the surface interactions incorporated, to investigate the collector efficiency for R e g ranging from 0.01 to 20. Particle filtration induced by interception and sedimentation is examined for non-Brownian particles ranging from 1 to 100 μm under favorable surface interactions for particle adhesion. The results from the CFD-based PCFCC model agreed well with those of the classical RT and Yao models for R e g N G * , for the initial deep-bed filtration efficiency at lower yet finite (0.01 to 20) R e g . The proposed PCFCC model has low computational cost and is extensibile from vertical to horizontal filtration at low and finite R e g .