Biofluid Flow Effects in Polymeric Membranes for a Range of Applications in Health and Environmental Sustainability

聚合物膜中的生物流体流动效应在健康和环境可持续性方面的一系列应用

• 批准号: 2902909
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Strathclyde
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2902909
• 关键词: Biofluid; Flow; Effects; Polymeric; Membranes

Membrane filtration has been growing in use in the recent decades. Its operating principles have made it attractive for multiple applications such as haemodialysis, distillation or desalination. The working conditions of haemodialysis and desalination are very different however, the former being operated at low pressures and the latter at very high pressures. Selecting optimal operating conditions can be challenging due to the economic cost of experiments. With the increase of computational power in the recent years, numerical simulations have become a widely used tool to improve practices across all engineering disciplines, having great impact on improved efficiency. The objective of the project is to develop a numerical model to accurately describe membrane filtration for a range of applications. Computer simulations will be run using commercially available software (such as STAR-CCM+ and COMSOL Multiphysics) and will then be validated with experiments. The computational work will be done at the University of Strathclyde over a period of multiple months, in preparation for the experimental validation, which will be done at Lancaster University for periods of multiple weeks.Commercially available membranes designed for ultrafiltration and nanofiltration will be used for the experimental set up. Different chemical solutions will be selected (e.g., water and sucrose, water and bovine serum albumin, etc.) in various species fractions. A CAD model of the flat sheet membrane and the hollow fibre module will be used for the simulation. The liquid properties of the mixture chosen will be modelled and input into the software. Both numerical simulations and experiments will be run under different operating conditions (e.g., pressure, flow rate, etc.) with the main outcome being mass transfer across the membrane. The visualisation tools from the computational software packages will be valuable in understanding common negative effects that appear in membrane filtration, such as concentration polarisation and particle deposition. The main aim of the project will be to find optimal working conditions and membrane selection for specific filtering processes for maximum efficiency and to provide insight into the effects that the flow conditions have on mass transfer.

近几十年来，膜过滤一直在使用。它的运行原则使其对多种应用，例如血液透析，蒸馏或脱盐具有吸引力。血液透析和脱盐的工作条件大不相同，但是，前者以低压力运行，而后者则在很高的压力下进行。由于实验的经济成本，选择最佳的运营条件可能具有挑战性。随着近年来计算能力的增加，数值模拟已成为一种广泛使用的工具，可以改善所有工程学科的实践，对提高效率产生很大的影响。该项目的目的是开发一个数值模型，以准确描述一系列应用的膜过滤。计算机模拟将使用市售软件（例如Star-CCM+和Comsol多物理学）运行，然后通过实验验证。计算工作将在Strathclyde大学的多个月内完成，以准备实验验证，该实验验证将在兰开斯特大学进行多个星期的时间。该膜将用于超滤和纳米滤过，用于实验设置。将在各种物种分数中选择不同的化学溶液（例如，水和蔗糖，水和牛血清白蛋白等）。平板膜和空心纤维模块的CAD模型将用于模拟。选择的混合物的液体性能将进行建模并输入软件。数值模拟和实验都将在不同的工作条件（例如压力，流速等）下进行，主要结果是整个膜的传质。来自计算软件包的可视化工具将在理解膜过滤中出现的常见负面影响（例如浓度极化和粒子沉积）中有价值。该项目的主要目的是找到特定过滤过程的最佳工作条件和膜选择，以最大程度地效率，并洞悉流量条件对质量转移的影响。