Investigation of flux decline in tortuous pore structures via three-dimensional simulation of cross-flow microfilter fouling

This paper presents a fluid dynamic-based approach to the prediction of the flux decline due to partial and complete pore blocking in the microfiltration process. The electrostatic force model includes both particle-particle (PP) and particle-membrane (PM) electrostatic forces. The addition of such forces was shown to affect particle trajectories in a tortuous three-dimensional microfilter membrane geometry. The model was validated by comparing experimental flux decline data with simulation flux decline data. A design of experiments was conducted to investigate the effects of transmembrane pressure, PM-and PP-zeta potential on flux decline. The simulation experiments revealed that low flux decline was associated with relatively low transmembrane pressures and near-zero values of PP-and PM-zeta potential; and relatively high transmembrane pressures and more-negative values of PP-and PM-zeta potential. The amount of flux decline was shown to be correlated to the specific nature of partial and complete pore blocking in the pore structure.