Experimental Analysis of the Hydraulic Performance of Wire-Wound Filter Cartridges in Domestic Plants

Among the treatment processes in water networks—of increasing importance in recent decades due to the progressive deterioration of water quality—filtration still represents a major solution. The present work focuses in particular on the filtration of drinking water with wire-wound filter cartridges, the most widely used type of cartridge in domestic plants among the commercially available cartridges, due to their efficiency and relatively low costs. Specifically, the hydraulic performance of these cartridges was analyzed, i.e., mainly the effect of their introduction into a hydraulic system in terms of head losses. The local pressure drops produced by the cartridges may, in fact, create problems in hydraulic plants already characterized by low pressures, where pressure levels may fall below the minimum limit recommended to ensure the smooth operation of domestic devices. To this aim, a set of experiments was conducted in a pilot circuit in the Laboratory of Environmental and Maritime Hydraulics (LIDAM) at University of Salerno, where pressure drops produced by the cartridges were measured in different operating conditions. The artificially dirty conditions of the wire-wound filters were analyzed in order to evaluate the effect of the filter obstruction. The analysis provided some useful information about the performance and duration of these filters, as well as suggestions for more efficient commercial filters.