Investigations on Effect of Different Strategies for Air Pollution Treatment with Plants as Air Filter: A CFD Analysis

Abstract

The objective of the present research work is to investigate the effect of implementing various types of plant panels on air quality characteristics, such as the removal of particulate matter (PM10) particles, using CFD simulation. This study finds the inclusion of three different types of plant filter panels, such as blocking, parallel, and zigzag forms. CFD simulation was performed using ANSYS Fluent, considering steady state conditions within a range of 0.5-2.0 m/s for air inlet velocities. It was found that the zigzag arrangement of panels has resulted in highly turbulent and mixed flow, as compared to the parallel configuration, which resulted in smooth flow, and the blocking configuration has produced low-velocity zones of recirculation. Besides this, it was also revealed through CFD simulation that PM10 mass flow was lowest for zigzag, minimum for blocking panels, and intermediate mass flow of PM10 particles for parallel. In summary, it was gathered that zigzag panels yielded superior filtration, uniform air flow as compared to the other two configurations, especially in the velocity range of 1-1.5 m/s.