Computational Fluid Dynamics Study on Particle Rejection in Microfiltration

  • Nakao, Shin-ichi (Department of Chemical System Engineering, The University of Tokyo) ;
  • Goto, Tomomasa (Department of Chemical System Engineering, The University of Tokyo) ;
  • Tanaka, Nobuyuki (Department of Chemical System Engineering, The University of Tokyo) ;
  • Yamamoto, Atsushi (Department of Chemical System Engineering, The University of Tokyo) ;
  • Takaba, Hiromitsu (Department of Chemical System Engineering, The University of Tokyo)
  • Published : 2004.05.01

Abstract

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was applied to modeling particle dynamics in microfiltration (MF). The rejection properties of poly methylmethacrylate (PMMA) and polystyrene (PS) were calculated. Calculated rejection (R) of PMMA was independent with the porosity of the membrane, and the R was constant in the range of volume flux between $1\times 1-^{-4}-1\times 10^{-2}$ m/s. These observations were in quantity agreement with our experimental observations. The dependence of PMMA and PS rejection on the ratio of particle diameter and pore diameter were good agreement with the experimental values, which suggesting that the validity of CFD simulation to evaluate rejection of particle in MF membranes. Change of rejection of PMMA as a function of time was molded based on the CFD result which explained well the experimental observation.

Keywords