Interior surface question

[DustySanders]

I have searched the site for information on this, to no avail, so I'll ask the members -

Has anyone done research on whether or not the relative smoothness of the interior of the baffle chamber affects fine dust separation? So many of the top-hats we see are made with clear plastic sides, which are very slick. If you were to use another surface that had some texture, do you think it might create a zone of slower moving air against it, or perhaps some sort of beneficial turbulence that might help with the fine stuff?

An extreme example would be lining the chamber with something like carpet - you could imagine that grabbing a lot of dust, but it would likely add too much resistance to the set-up. I am considering using bending plywood to make the circular part of my top hat; I could leave it as it comes, or cross sand it with coarse paper to make it rougher. I could try to paint it "slick", or even line it with thin sheet metal, to make it behave more like the plastic sides.

So do we have anyone who has tried this sort of thing, or who can model it on a computer, or has a strong intuition, or even just a strong opinion?

Thanks, Dusty

[DustySanders]

Kind of surprised no one has even had a strong opinion about this....

[retired2]

At one time I thought about trying vertical ribs on the inside wall of the separator spaced at some interval that would be determined through testing.  The height of the ribs would also be determined through experimentation.  And I considered rounding the ribs in the fashion of a speed bump.  In any case, the idea was that the ribs would cause the same effect as a snow fence.

That idea is a variation of what you are questioning, and ultimately I decided against it because 1) it was too much work 2) it would cause turbulance, and 3) it would add to the already high separator SP losses.  All three are bad.

[DustySanders]

Thanks, R2 - I agree about the importance of not increasing the turbulence to keep the sp losses down. And I guess the only way to know for sure would be side by side testing, which I don't have the desire to do...
Thanks again for the reply. 

[BrianHood]

Air moves in such mysterious ways, there might be a gain in static pressure. Glider wings for example are kept as smooth as possible but at a certain point pretty far back along the wing zig-zag or dimple tape is added to create a little turbulence to help 'unstick' the laminar flow of air from the wing.

https://wingsandwheels.com/tapes-seals/turbulator-dimple-tape.html

And golf balls have dimples. So maybe some texture would be a benefit. On the other hand it seems like all the baffles work so well perhaps it's just fussing.