Svetlana S. Popović

Lattice Boltzmann simulation of two-sided lid-driven flow in a staggered cavity

In this article, the lattice Boltzmann method is employed in order to explore incompressible fluid flow inside a two-sided lid-driven staggered cavity. Results of the lattice Boltzmann simulation for antiparallel motion of lids are compared with the data from existing literature. For parallel motion of lids, the characteristics of flow pattern for a variety of Re numbers (50–3200) are presented. An asymmetric steady-state flow pattern for parallel motion of lids is obtained.

Process Duration and Water Consumption in a Variable Volume Diafiltration for Partial Demineralization and Concentration of Acid Whey

Process duration and fresh water consumption were determined (experimentally and statistically) for variable volume diafiltration (VVD) of cottage cheese through a flat sheet membrane (0.046 m2). The VVD process was performed at two volume decreasing ratios (α = 0.75 and α = 0.5). The VVD-0.75 process lasts much longer than the VVD-0.5 process if the same concentration degree is required. The VVD-0.5 process lasts longer than the VVD-0.75 process if it is aimed to achieve the same purification degree. At low purification degrees, both processes require similar quantities of fresh water, but better demineralization is possible after higher dilution, which is typical of the VVD-0.75 process. The mathematical model applied in estimating the duration of the process proved very accurate, which cannot be said about the fresh water consumption model.

Fouling mitigation in tubular membranes by 3D-printed turbulence promoters

Abstract Despite intensive research, fouling remains a severe problem in membrane filtration. It is often controlled by applying turbulent flow which requires a higher energy consumption. So-called turbulence promoters or static mixers can be inserted into the flow channel of tubular membranes. They deflect the fluid, induce vortices, enhance particle back-transport and increase the shear rate at the membrane surface, thus mitigating fouling. However, little is known how the geometry of such turbulence promotors affects the reduction of fouling. We investigate how different 3D-printed mixer geometries affect fouling and improve the flux during filtration with humic acid. Most mixer geometries used in the present study are based on a twisted tape; a Kenics static mixer is investigated as well. Static mixers with changing diameter prove to be less effective than twisted tape mixers with constant diameter which lead to an increase in permeate flux of around 130 % . The highest flux improvement of 140 % can be reached by applying a Kenics mixer. Regardless of their geometry, all investigated static mixer cause higher permeate fluxes at same specific energy consumption. Again, the Kenics mixer proves to be the most efficient static mixer. The presented mixer geometries can be fabricated with undercut injection molding techniques and represent a simple and viable option to make tubular membrane based filtration processes more efficient.

CFD i laboratorijska analiza aksijalne brzine protoka kroz porozne cevi sa promoterima turbulencije različite geometrije

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used for modelling flow regime in a porous tube. This tube is an ultrafiltration membrane filter made from zirconium-oxide which is very effective in the separation of stable oil-in-water microemulsions, especially when the tube is filled with static mixer. The results of the CFD analysis were used in the preliminary optimisation of the static mixer’s geometry since it has significant effect the energy requirement of this advanced membrane technology. The self-developed static mixers were tested “in vitro” from the aspect of separation quality and process productivity as well to validate CFD results and to develop a cost effective, green method to recover unmanageable oily wastewaters for sustainable development. In this work the results of computational simulation of the fluid velocity and membrane separation experiments are discussed.

Influence of twisted tape turbulence promoter on fouling reduction in microfiltration of milk proteins

Membrane filtration has become one of the major technologies in the food industry. It is widely applied in the dairy industry, and it is mostly used for the concentration and fractionation of milk proteins and for the whey processing. Of all pressure driven membrane processes, ultrafiltration is the most widely used. The major disadvantage of pressure driven membrane processes is severe fouling of membrane during filtration particularly when the fluids containing proteins are processed. Fouling with proteins is complex phenomenon because it occurs at the membrane surface as well as in the pores of membrane, and depends on the operating conditions and on the interactions of proteins and membrane material. In order to reduce fouling of the membrane different techniques have been developed, and one of them relies on the changing of the hydrodynamic conditions in the membrane or module. In this study, influence of twisted tape turbulence promoters on the fouling reduction in cross-flow microfiltration of skim milk was investigated. Twisted tapes with tree characteristic ratios of helix element length to the tape diameter (aspect ratio) were studied. It was shown that twisted tapes with different aspect ratios reduce fouling of membrane by a factor of three or more. The presence of twisted tape induces changes in the flow patterns from straight to helicoidally thus producing turbulence flow at the lower cross-flow rates. Turbulence intensification prevents accumulation of proteins at membrane surface enabling reduction in reversible fouling what results in the reduction of overall membrane fouling. The best performance was achieved using a twisted tape with the lowest aspect ratio of 1.0. This promoter reduces fouling seven times at low transmembrane pressure and low cross-flow velocity. The twisted tape with aspect ratio 1.0 induces the most intensive turbulence, the longest helicoidal flow path, and appearance of vortices near the membrane surfaces, so the scouring of proteins from the membrane surface is the most intensive in that case.