DMREF: Collaborative Research: An integrated multiscale modeling and experimental approach to design fouling-resistant membranes

1534304(Sarupria) & 1533874(Battiato)该项目解决了当今社会面临的一项重大挑战——如何以低成本为不断增长的人口提供清洁水。水处理过程中使用的膜暴露于含有有机、无机和生物物种的给水中，随着时间的推移，这会导致结垢和膜生产率的损失。由于结垢导致的性能损失是水处理中膜工艺相关的最大成本之一，因此发现限制结垢的新表面处理方法将产生重大的经济和社会影响。膜的结垢倾向很大程度上取决于其表面特性，例如化学和形态。该项目的目标是开发多尺度数学框架来预测具有不同几何图案和化学涂层的膜表面的污垢行为。通过计算机预测新型膜表面的污染特性的能力将加速新型膜设计的发现，并缩短从实验室到市场的时间。在该项目中，将进行涉及计算模型和实验测量之间迭代反馈的综合研究，以测试两个主要假设：（1）膜表面几何和化学模式的目标组合将显着减少膜污染，（2）经过实验训练的多尺度计算模型将加速发现可显着减少膜污染的新型几何和化学表面修饰。这项研究将（i）产生一个数学框架和相应的模型，以确定控制通过微米和纳米图案膜的质量和动量传递的物理机制和几何特征，（ii）深入了解复杂拓扑如何控制和调节污垢和能量通量，以及（iii）阐明过滤流速和反应传输过程的宏观行为如何与微米和纳米尺度的现象相结合。这项工作将具有变革性，因为提供经过实验验证的计算框架将能够快速筛选许多膜表面修饰，从而选出最有希望进行进一步测试的修饰，并将导致膜过滤技术的跨越式改进。该项目将为培训研究生和本科生研究人员提供多学科环境。 Zoom 视频会议等新的交流平台将用于向小学提供虚拟科学演示和实验室参观。

1534304(Sarupria) & 1533874(Battiato)This project addresses a grand challenge facing society today--how to make clean water available to a growing population at low cost. Membranes used in water treatment processes are exposed to feed waters containing organic, inorganic, and biological species, which leads to fouling and loss of membrane productivity over time. Since performance loss due to fouling is one of the largest costs associated with membrane processes in water treatment, discovery of new surface treatments that limit fouling would have significant economic and societal impacts. Fouling propensity of a membrane depends greatly on its surface properties such as chemistry and morphology. The goal of this project is to develop the multiscale mathematical framework to predict fouling behavior on the surfaces of membranes with different geometric patterns and chemical coatings. The ability to predict fouling properties of new membrane surfaces in silico will accelerate the discovery of novel membrane designs and decrease the time from laboratory to market. In this project, comprehensive studies involving iterative feedback between computational modeling and experimental measurements will be performed to test two main hypotheses: (1) targeted combinations of geometric and chemical patterns on a membrane surface will significantly reduce membrane fouling, and (2) experimentally-trained multiscale computational models will accelerate the discovery of novel geometric and chemical surface modifications that significantly reduce membrane fouling. This research will (i) produce a mathematical framework and corresponding models to identify the physical mechanisms and geometric features controlling mass and momentum transfer through and over micro- and nanopatterned membranes, (ii) provide a deep understanding of how foulants and energy fluxes are controlled and regulated by complex topologies, and (iii) elucidate how the macroscopic behavior of filtration flow rates and reactive transport processes are coupled with phenomena at the micro- and nano-scale. This work will be transformational because delivering an experimentally-validated computational framework will enable rapid screening of many membrane surface modifications to short-list the most promising ones for further testing, and it will lead to a leapfrog improvement in membrane filtration technologies. This project will provide a multidisciplinary environment for training graduate and undergraduate researchers. New communication platforms such as Zoom video conferencing will be used to deliver virtual science demonstrations and laboratory tours to elementary school.