Abstract

Membrane processes have been intensely developing during the last decades, and mainly in dairy industry. Considering the feed effluent complexity, concentration polarization phenomenon and fouling are accentuated limitations for the development of membrane dairy filtration processes. Knowledge of the wall shear stress developed at the membrane surface is fundamental to reduce those phenomena. In this work, the variation of the wall shear stress on cylindrical, square, triangular and hybrid channels by numerical simulation for various operating parameters was studied. Predictions were established for different commercial ceramic membranes and predict the geometry that tends to better mass transport efficiency by enhancing hydrodynamics conditions. Numerical simulations are performed over a typical range of Reynolds numbers inside different channel geometries under laminar and turbulent conditions. Consequently, this paper intended to enhance the performances of these processes by maximizing the average wall shear stress on the membrane surface by numerical simulation. A comparison with experimental results was realized and a good agreement was obtained. Given those conclusions, a new membrane according to the whole CFD results consistent with experimental results was designed.

Recommended Citation

Springer, Fanny; Ghidossi, Rémy; Carretier, Emilie; Veyret, Damien; Dhaler, Didier; and Moulin, Philippe (2009) "Determination of the Wall Shear Stress by Numerical Simulation: Membrane Process Applications," Chemical Product and Process Modeling: Vol. 4 : Iss. 4, Article 5.
DOI: 10.2202/1934-2659.1328
Available at: http://www.bepress.com/cppm/vol4/iss4/5