Abstract
Pleated membrane filters are widely used to remove undesired impurities from a fluid in many applications. A filter membrane is sandwiched between porous support layers and then pleated and packed into an annular cylindrical cartridge with a central hollow duct for outflow. Although this arrangement offers a high surface filtration area to volume ratio, the filter performance is not as efficient as those of equivalent flat filters. In this paper, we use asymptotic methods to simplify the flow throughout the cartridge to systematically investigate how the number of pleats or pleat packing density affects the performance of the pleated membrane filters. The model is used to determine an optimal number of pleats in order to achieve a particular optimum filtration performance. Our findings show that only the “just right”—neither too few nor too many—number of pleats gives optimum performance in a pleated filter cartridge.
Highlights
Filtration is the process of separating contaminants from a liquid or gas by using filter membranes
We focus on the pleat packing density and the filter cartridge’s geometry as the main characteristics of a pleated membrane filter to achieve the optimal filtration performance
We have developed a mathematical model for the fluid flow in a pleated membrane filter cartridge composed of three regions: empty area, pleated membrane, and central hollow duct
Summary
Filtration is the process of separating contaminants from a liquid or gas by using filter membranes. As shown in previous studies [11,31], the performance of the pleated membrane filters are inferior compared to the flat (unpleated) filters with equivalent membrane surface areas This stems from several factors, such as the additional resistance to the overall system due to the pleat packing density (PPD), as well as the support layers, the complex fluid dynamics within the pleated membrane, and possible damage of the membrane occurring during the pleating process. We arrive at coupled boundary value problems for pressure and velocities in each of the three regions, as well as the permeability of the membrane and support layers, evolving with space and quasi-statically with time
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