A new model has been developed to predict the clogging behaviour of high-efficiency particulate air filters. The model takes into account the heterogeneous deposit of particles inside the filter medium. The filter is considered to be a series of elementary slices which are assumed to be homogeneously loaded by aerosol. Particles are assumed to form dendrites which can be considered as newly formed fibres. For each time increment and for each slice, particle collection efficiency of initial and new fibres is calculated according to the Payet model in order to give an overall prediction of the mass of aerosol deposited and the pressure drop. Model results are compared with experimental results.