Due to their good adsorption capacities, woven activated carbon filters are promising materials for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and odors in air treatment applications. As these fibrous media can easily be implemented in various filtration configurations, their use in a combined filter device for VOC and particulate matter (PM) removal is considered. For this purpose, experiments are performed to characterize their collection efficiencies versus particle size and mass loading for the removal of particulate matter smaller than 10 mu m. The specific fiber arrangement, due to multi-fiber yam weaving, prevents the use of initial collection efficiency models developed for non-woven media. This study aims to characterize collection efficiency during loading and to model initial collection efficiency in a woven structure made of multi-fiber yams. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.