Numerical study of the filtering barriers influence to contain aerated particulate systems

Since the high rate of viral proliferation caused by Covid-19, it was observed that microdroplets with a pathogenic load can remain floating when in confined environments due to their low densities. They are also subject to being transported very easily when in open environments, becoming potential agents of infection. It has motivated several researchers in the field of particulate systems to try understand how particles behave in more extreme conditions. Bearing in mind that the materials currently used have a low retention yield for liquid droplets, and that protection barriers against pathogens are present both in daily use in hospital application, from diagnosis to treatment, this work simulated computationally, in a Eulerian-Eulerian approach, fluid particle retention efficiency in filter films. The simulated results indicated the high degree of retention of the filtering medium and the dependence of its saturation on the particle diameter and flow velocity, in which the greater the initial flow velocity and larger particles, the faster the saturation and detachment of particles, reducing the filter medium containment capacity. However, the results indicated that even so, retainer materials are efficient in reducing the proliferation of pathogenic loads.