Numerical Simulation of Hollow Fiber Ultrafiltration Membrane
Low pressure driven ultrafiltraion (UF) processes has been applied in various industries due to its economical and easy operated benefits. Hollow fiber membrane is one of the most used membrane configuration in industry, membrane fouling is the major challenge for widely usage. Most of the investigation of UF was carried out by experiments to determine the effect of different operating conditions on permeate flux. However, experiments provide limited insight information on the membrane performance. In addition, the prediction of permeate flux under different operating conditions is necessary for experimental design and optimization. The purpose of the present study is to develop a numerical model to simulate the UF process and investigate the UF mechanism. A numerical model was developed using commercial CFD package (FLUENT). The effects of various operating conditions on permeate flux were determined by experiments and simulations, the comparison of the experimental and CFD results shows good agreements. Controlling membrane fouling will maintain a high productivity. The simulations were carried out to investigate the efficiency of removing accumulated particles on membrane surface by installing spacer filaments in membrane channels. The results suggested that the zigzag type spacer has d/h = 0.5 and l/h = 5 is more economical and efficient in reducing fouling.