Ineffective Cleaning in Generic Baghouses: by Brian Mathews, Project Engineer

Ineffective Cleaning in Generic Baghouses
By Brian Mathews, Project Engineer
Scientific Dust Collectors
Page 1 of 8

Table of Contents:
1) Introduction ..................................................................................................... 3
2) Previous Results ............................................................................................. 3
3) Further Calculations ........................................................................................ 4
4) Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 7
5) Figure Index .................................................................................................... 8
Page 2 of 8
Introduction
In a typical generic baghouse application, the cleaning is accomplished by back-flushing the filter with
compressed air that travels through an orifice hole in a purge tube (blow pipe) and through a venturi. The typical
venturi is approximately 6 inches long, has a throat diameter of 1 , and placed 2 to 3 inches away from the
outside of the purge tube (blow pipe). As the compressed air leaves the orifice, it becomes a jet of air traveling
at the speed of sound, Mach 1.0. This jet of air expands under the Law of Conservation of Momentum at a cone
angle of about 15 until it is stopped by the throat of the venturi as shown (Figure 1). This same concept holds
true for both 4 and 6 diameter bags.
Figure 1. Orifice and Venturi Cleaning System

This cleaning system allows dust to be filtered at an air-to-cloth ratio of 5:1. That means for every 5 CFM of
airflow, there is 1 square foot of media used to filter the air. This has been the industry standard for over 50
years. Just because this cleaning system has been standard, does not mean that it is flawless. There are
several inherent problems with the orifice and venturi cleaning system. First, due to the proximity between the
orifice and throat of the venturi, not enough clean air is induced during the cleaning cycle, and as a result, air is
pulled in through the bag from the dirty air plenum to compensate. Second, due to the energy contained within
the compressed air and the close proximity to the orifice, as the jet expands and passes through the venturi at
high velocity, it overwhelms the surrounding media with air and can create a puffing effect. Lastly, due to the
high velocity of air after the venturi, the induced air is forced out of the bag creating another vacuum further
down the bag. As a result, there is a large section of the top of the bag that is unusable for repetitive cleaning of
the dust.
Scientific Dust Collectors (SDC) on the other hand developed and patented a way of cleaning filter bags without
using a venturi. Using a converging and diverging nozzle instead of a generic orifice and venturi, SDC found that
the entire length of the bag could be cleaned fully, more effectively, and allow the dust to be filtered at an air-tocloth of 10:1 or higher while maintaining a lower pressure drop. SDC has recently conducted additional tests to
observe this and it is documented in Advantages of Cleaning without a Venturi in Baghouse Collectors, a
corresponding technical paper describing this difference between the generic baghouse cleaning and SDCs
nozzle technology. After the completion of the previous technical paper, further analysis was completed to find
out the effects of the overwhelming amount of cleaning air and find out how much cleaning air is too much. That
is the subject of this technical paper.
Previous Results
Testing was conducted measuring the flow at every inch from the top of the bag from 3 inches to 25 inches.
Results showed the consistency in cleaning that the nozzle provides versus the orifice and venturi system,
which created four distinct zones. Zone 1 (3 inches to 7 inches) consists of negative flow, or a vacuum, which is
required in the orifice and venturi system to compensate for the lack of induced air. Zone 2 (8 inches to 12
inches) consists of extremely high flow just below the venturi. Zone 3 (13 inches to 17 inches) is another region
of negative flow that is due to the extremely high flow in Zone 2 pushing out too much air, Zone 3 must draw
more air in to compensate for the loss. Zone 4 (18 inches to 25 inches) is where the flow finally stabilizes and
continues to be positive flow throughout the rest of the bag. In contrast, SDCs nozzle has consistent positive
flow through the entire tested range. The results as can be seen in the comparative table of flow Figure 2.
Page 3 of 8
Figure 2. Table of Volumetric Flow (in CFM) from 3 inches to 25 inches for the Venturi and SDC Nozzle.
Further Calculations
To further understand the cleaning cycle, not only must the bag being cleaned be looked at, but also the
surrounding bags must be evaluated. All filter media have permeability ratings, which is not the same number as
the dust collector air-to-cloth ratio. This is the maximum amount of air (in CFM) that can permeate an area of
media (typically in square feet). As a rule, the permeability rating of the media must be equal or greater than the
air-to-cloth ratio of the dust collector. The most common form of filter media is singed polyester, because of its
adequate filtering ability and relatively low cost. For singed polyester, the typical permeability is roughly 40 CFM
per square foot of media. This means for one typical 4 diameter by 8 long bag, taking the surface area of the
bag, there is 9.46 ft2 of available media, and therefore the maximum CFM that one filter bag can absorb would
2
be 378CFM. Using the cross-sectional area ( r ) of the bag and the formula Q = V A, the velocity through
the bag is 3,426 FPM.
In a generic baghouse, the typical bag spacing is 1 between the diameters of the bags (or 5 between the
centers of the bags). To model the flow in the surrounding bags, the bag being cleaned would need to
theoretically increase in size so that it is even with the neighboring bag, this is done by adding 1 to the radius,
or 2 to the diameter as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Generic Baghouse 1 bag spacing.

Here, the new bag radius will be r = 3 . Using the maximum velocity calculated earlier from the permeability
and the new theoretical cross-sectional area, the maximum flow is 790 CFM. This means that once the flow in
the bag being cleaned reaches 790CFM (or a velocity of 7,153 FPM), the air expands outward toward the
neighboring bags. As the air expands, it slows down and once it reaches the neighboring bags, it will be
traveling at the maximum velocity of 3,426 FPM. Once the air reaches the surrounding bags, it overwhelms
them with air, and creates a blinding effect that hinders the overall cleaning performance and can damage the
surrounding media. During the cleaning cycle of the orifice and venturi system, the cleaning flow overwhelms
the surrounding media in several areas throughout the cleaning cycle as shown in Figure 4.
Page 4 of 8
3500.0
BLINDING
ZONE
3000.0
(using 1" Bag Spacing)

2500.0
ZONE 2
Volumetric Flow (CFM)
2000.0
ZONE 1
1500.0
ZONE 3
ZONE 4
1000.0
500.0
0.0
1
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
-500.0
-1000.0
Distance from Top of Bag (inches)
Figure 4. Blinding Zone with Generic Baghouse 1 bag spacing.

From the graph, it is clear that all of Zone 2 is providing excess flow, as well as a few inches in Zone 4 where
the flow finally stabilizes.
The previous results shown in Figure 4 above were using 1 bag spacing, which is an industry standard. There
are some dust collector manufactures that use wider bag spacing for larger dusts and applications where
bridging can be a problem. Wider bag spacing can reach up to 3 between the diameters of the bags (or 7
between the centers of the bags). Using a similar scenario as before, increasing size of the bag so that the new
bag radius would be r = 5 as shown below in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Scientific Dust Collectors 3 bag spacing.

With the maximum velocity calculated earlier, 3,426 FPM and new theoretical cross-sectional area, the
maximum flow is 2060 CFM. Again, looking at this maximum flow allowed graphically the orifice and venturi
cleaning system still overwhelms some of the media even at a wider bag spacing as shown in Figure 6.
Page 5 of 8
3500.0
BLINDING
ZONE
3000.0
(using 3" Bag

Spacing)
2500.0
ZONE 2
2000.0
ZONE 1
1500.0
ZONE 3
ZONE 4
1000.0
500.0
0.0
1
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
-500.0
-1000.0
Figure 6. Blinding Zone with Generic Baghouse 3 bag spacing.

At Scientific Dust Collectors, we utilize 3 spacing between bag diameters as our standard compared to the
generic baghouse that only uses 1 bag spacing. With the 3 spacing between the bags, our cleaning does not
overwhelm the bags, rather it is just the right amount of cleaning as shown in Figure 7.
3500.0
BLINDING
ZONE
3000.0
(using 3" Bag

Spacing)
2500.0
ZONE 2
2000.0
ZONE 1
1500.0
ZONE 3
ZONE 4
1000.0
SDC
Nozzle
500.0
0.0
1
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
-500.0
-1000.0
Distance from Top of Bag (inches)
Figure 7. Blinding Zone comparison between SDC Nozzle Cleaning and Generic Baghouse.
Page 6 of 8
25
Conclusion
For over 50 years, the orifice and venturi have been an integral part of the cleaning system for the reverse-pulse
jet baghouse dust collectors. The venturi-based cleaning system allows dust to be filtered at a nominal air-tocloth ratio of 5:1. This cleaning system also has inherent problems that cause a significant decrease in efficiency
over time. Not only is the cleaning system unstable in cleaning of a single bag, the cleaning of the single bag
affects the neighboring bags. During the cleaning cycle, not only is a vacuum created at the top of the bag, but a
region of excessive flow. This excessive flow is so substantial that as it expands beyond the limits of the bag,
and hinders the filters within a close proximity. In a generic baghouse, the nominal bag spacing is 1 between
the filters (or 5 between centers). At this spacing, once the flow is above 790 CFM the surrounding bags are
affected. Looking back at the results, the peak flow of 3391 CFM is over four times the amount air allowed by
the surrounding media!
On the other hand, Scientific Dust Collectors patented converging and diverging nozzles cleaning system
allows for dust to be filtered at a nominal air-to-cloth ratio of 10:1. Scientific Dust Collectors also utilizes a wider
bag spacing of 3 between the filters (or 7 between centers). If the generic baghouse were to utilize a similar
spacing of 3 between filters, once the flow is above 2060 CFM the surrounding bags are affected. Looking at
the results, the generic baghouse is still almost one-and-a-half times greater than the maximum flow allowed by
the surrounding media. In fact, for the generic baghouse cleaning system not to affect the neighboring bags, the
bag spacing would have to be 9 (or 14 between centers)! The nozzle based cleaning only reaches 1436
CFM, well under the maximum flow. This wider spacing promotes dust release while also protecting the
surrounding media from blinding. As a result of efficient dust collector design and patented nozzle cleaning
technology, Scientific Dust Collectors is able to operate at higher air-to-cloth ratios, provide better and more
complete cleaning of the filter, and longer filter life.
As a recommendation, when quoting baghouse, either buying or selling, remember to ask for wide bag spacing.
It is the correct thing to do.
Page 7 of 8

Figure Index:
Figure 1:
Orifice and Venturi Cleaning System............................................................................................ 3
Figure 2:
Table of Volumetric Flow (in CFM) from 3 inches to 25 inches for the Venturi and SDC Nozzle 4
Figure 3:
Generic Baghouse 1 bag spacing. .............................................................................................. 5
Figure 4:
Blinding Zone with Generic Baghouse 1 bag spacing................................................................. 5
Figure 5:
Scientific Dust Collectors 3 bag spacing ..................................................................................... 6
Figure 6:
Blinding Zone with Generic Baghouse 3 bag spacing................................................................. 6
Figure 7:
Blinding Zone comparison between SDC Nozzle Cleaning and Generic Baghouse ................... 7
Page 8 of 8

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Ineffective Cleaning in Generic Baghouses

By Brian Mathews, Project Engineer

Scientific Dust Collectors

Scientific Dust Collectors