A Predictive Bubble Point Pressure Model for Porous Liquid Acquisition Device Screens

This article presents a simplified model for porous screen channel liquid acquisition devices based on a maximum bubble
point pressure method from Adamson and Gast (1997). To validate the model, three 304 stainless steel (325 × 2300, 450
× 2750, and 510 × 3600) mesh samples were tested in methanol, acetone, isopropyl alcohol, and water. Screen pores are
estimated based on analysis from scanning electron microscopy, historical data, and current test data. Results show that
the bubble point pressure is proportional to the surface tension of the fluid only when accounting for nonzero contact
angles. The previous assumption that bubble point pressure scales inversely with effective pore diameter is shown to be
invalid, as the second finest 450 × 2750 produced the highest bubble point of the three screens. The simplified bubble
point model can be used to make predictions for any pure fluid when pore diameters are based on bubble point tests and
not SEM analysis.