A numerical approach to study the impact of packing density on fluid flow distribution in hollow fiber module.

Jan Günther (1, 2) , Philippe Schmitz (1) , Claire Albasi (2) , Christine Lafforgue (1)

1 LISBP - Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Systèmes Biologiques et des Procédés
2 LGC - Laboratoire de Génie Chimique

The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of hollow fiber module design, specially packing density, and filtration operating mode on the filtration performance. In order to perform this analysis, a model based on the finite element method was used to simulate numerically the flow and filtration velocity along the fiber. An annular region of fluid surrounding the fiber was considered in order to account for the packing density Φ of the module. The originality of this approach lies in the study of fiber density effect on the hydrodynamic conditions, both for inside/out (IO) and outside/in (OI) filtration modes. The numerical simulations of fluid flow have shown a modification of the axial filtration velocity profile with packing density. When the density of fibers was high, filtration took place preferentially in the bottom of the fiber. In contrast, when the packing density was low, permeate flow was higher at the top of the fiber, i.e. the filtration module. Two experimental hollow fiber modules with two packing densities were tested and showed good agreement with the numerical data. These results underline the variations of filtration velocity along the fiber that will allow some predictions on fouling deposit to be done.

Mots clés: Filtration; Computational Fluid Dynamics; Hollow fiber; Packing density

Domaines: Génie chimique

Jan Günther, Philippe Schmitz, Claire Albasi, Christine Lafforgue. A numerical approach to study the impact of packing density on fluid flow distribution in hollow fiber module.. Journal of Membrane Science, 2010, 348 (1-2), pp.277-286. ⟨10.1016/j.memsci.2009.11.011⟩. ⟨hal-03552982⟩