PARTICLE PENETRATION DEPTH DISTRIBUTION IN DEEP BED FILTRATION

Small particle penetration depth in a random fixed bed of larger glass spheres has been studied experimentally under laminar flow conditions and in the absence of Brownian motion. The small particles, marked with a thin coating of gold, were tracked in the fixed bed made optically transparent by matching the index of refraction of the suspending fluid to that of the glass spheres. Small particle penetration depths were examined across different ratios of the small particle diameter to the large sphere diameter.