A Correlation of the Resistance to Air Flow of Wire Gauzes

Abstract

The resistance to the flow of air through different assemblies of wire gauzes has been correlated to a common basis. Single gauzes, closely-packed assemblies, sintered packs, and assemblies of spaced gauzes have been considered, although the actual correlations have been restricted to square-mesh gauzes with a single-wire diameter, as these are used most in practice. Experimental data for the sintered packs are presented and compared with the published data for the other types of assembly. The flow of air through a gauze is considered as analogous to flow through passages or pipes, and the resistance as being due mainly to the friction between the flow and the surfaces of the voids in the gauze, in contrast to the previous approaches of treating the resistance of a gauze as being due to a combined drag of the wire cylinders. The range of Reynolds number (based on hydraulic mean diameter) covered by the correlation is from 0.1 to 5,000.