Design and Development of an Indoor air filtration system and Mathematical Modelling of its Process Parameters affecting system efficacy

Abstract

quotThis thesis addresses the work whose ideation surfaced from one of the deepest biological crisis in the human history; the pandemic with Corona virus. During the beginning of 2020, the entire world was gripped with the worst crisis which challenged the very human existence. The world health organisation has reported that the casualties from Corona Virus have crossed 3 million marks. Development of an air filtration system for eliminating Virus of less than 80 nm diameter was the need of the hour. The present work circles around design and development of a compact air filtration system which can eliminate corona virus in an enclosed environment. newlineAn indoor air filtration system was designed with inner walls coated with nano-TiO2 and irradiated with UVC light. Luffa based air filtration mesh, coated with activated carbon and zeolite was used in the inlet side of the air filter. Activated carbon granules were used in the exit side of the air filter. Efficacy of the machine was determined at Edward Food Research and analysis centre (EFRAC) upon purging a known quantity of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria in close encapsulation and measuring the bacteria colony count in repeated time intervals during the period for which the machine was operated. Performance optimization The optimalvalues of the process parameters affecting the performance of the machine were obtained with application of genetic algorithm using the hypothesis obtainedfrom multivariate polynomial regression. newlineMathematical models weredeveloped to predict the percentage of bacterial countby varying various design process parameters using machine learningapproaches. The predictive models were comparedto determine the best hypothesis with highest R2 value.Genetic algorithm was then applied on this hypothesisto determine the optimum value. The optimum process parameters were implemented and the test runs were carried out to determine the improvement in efficacy. newline newline newline newlinequot newline newline