The effect of layers on the pressure drop and saturation of nonwettable filters at different loading rates were investigated. It was found that both the jump and channel pressure drop depended on the loading rate. The total channel pressure drop of different filters seemed independent of the number of layers. At the same loading rate, more layers led to fewer channels per layer and larger size of each channel. Moreover, according to the evolution of channel number and size, there was a reorganization of channel structure in the filters. (c) 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 180-185, 2018