Experimental study on the influence of wire diameter on the internal flow behaviour of woven metal screens

Sintered woven wire mesh structures are a classic porous medium. In this paper, we examined the internal flow behaviours of sintered metal wire mesh structures with 0.215mm diameter wires with different porosities. Following previous research results, the influence of woven mesh wire diameter on material penetrating quality was studied. The air that was applied by the gas source was used to investigate structure performance. The Reynolds numbers of the inlet changed from 8.2 to 66.1. The pressures and flow rate at the inlet and outlet were obtained to calculate the permeability and inertia coefficient of each specimen, as well as the friction factors. The experiment results showed that permeability increased and the inertia coefficient decreased as wire diameter increased. Moreover, structures with large wire diameters (d s = 0.215mm) showed better penetrating quality at the same porosity levels. Increases in pressure drop kept pace with increases in diameter. The friction factor decreased as the Reynolds number increased, and tended to be constant.