Cross-flow Velocity Research Articles

Zwitterion Modification in Desalination Membrane for Rejecting Salt and Salt Ions in Brackish Water – A Mini Review

ABSTRACTDesalination membrane using zwitterion modification provides a significant opportunity to enhance excellent properties for rejecting salt and salt ions. The outstanding properties are designed by positive and negative charges attached to the membrane surface, including water permeability, salt permeability, fouling, and hydrophilicity of the membrane surface. The hydrophilic membrane, which is mentioned as one of the types of desalination membrane, presents the ability to repel salt and salt ions and pass the water. The modification of hydrophilic membranes is also affected by several factors, including water permeability, salt permeability, fouling of membrane surfaces, crossflow velocity, transmembrane pressure, and temperature. Regarding membrane modification, zwitterion has been applied for several ranges, such as the hemodialysis process, live cell imaging, antibacterial surfaces, and wound dressing. However, using a zwitterion modification membrane for desalinating water containing salt content, including brackish water, has yet to be developed. In addition, literature reviews related to polymer membranes for brackish water desalination have never been comprehensively documented. Thus, this review article addresses the zwitterion modification for desalination membranes, which can reject salt and salt ions in brackish water. Furthermore, the mechanism of zwitterion modification for desalination membranes has been presented. Finally, the challenge of zwitterion modification for desalination membranes has been evaluated to inspire insight for future studies.

Experimental Investigation on Vortex Generator's Distance From Film Cooling Hole

Abstract The effects of vortex generator distance from film cooling hole on increasing gas turbine blade film cooling efficiency have been studied experimentally. The technique of infrared (IR) thermography has been implemented to study the temperature field. The diameter of the film cooling hole and the cross-flow velocity define the Reynolds number, which is fixed at 2369. There are now three different jet to cross-flow blowing ratio adjustments: 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5. Three different vortex generator distance from film cooling hole have been studied experimentally to increase the gas turbine blade film cooling efficiency. It has been shown that lowest distance among vortex generator distance and film cooling hole, yields better film cooling efficiency. Overall, the delta winglet pair with lowest distance between vortex generator distance and film cooling hole outperforms the higher distance because of the generation of secondary longitudinal vortices that completely destroy counter rotating vortex structures because their rotational tendency is opposite to that of the counter rotating vortex pair (CRVP).

Direct Membrane Filtration (DMF) of municipal wastewater – A study on the prevention and remediation of fouling

Direct membrane filtration (DMF) has gained a lot of attention in recent years because of its potential to treat low-strength and low temperature wastewater, where biological based treatments are inefficient. However, fouling is a major concern which keeps this technique from being more widely used. The main aim of this study was to investigate membrane fouling, its mitigation approaches and the organic/nutrient retention during DMF of municipal wastewater by adjusting operational parameters and pretreating the sewage. In a laboratory-scale setup employing crossflow to mitigate fouling, both ultrafiltration and microfiltration membranes were utilized. Physicochemical pre-treatment of sewage with polyaluminum chloride and polyamide significantly inhibited membrane fouling and improved organics/nutrient retention. Subsequent experiments with physiochemically pre-treated sewage, using microfiltration and ultrafiltration separately, revealed that (i) an increase in crossflow velocity from 1 to 2 m s −1 improved filtration performance by reducing irreversible fouling, (ii) elevating transmembrane pressure from 0.18 to 0.4 bar increased both reversible and irreversible fouling, and (iii) periodic relaxation increased the extent of irreversible fouling, contributing to higher overall fouling in ultrafiltration. When employing DMF for sewage concentration, ultrafiltration demonstrated superior filtration performance and organics retention compared to microfiltration. Furthermore, through pre-precipitation and microsieving (100 μm) followed by DMF with ultrafiltration membranes, a remarkable removal efficiency of 92 % for chemical oxygen demand (COD), 98 % for total phosphorus (TP), and 100 % for total suspended solids (TSS) was achieved. By cleaning the fouled membranes using an alkaline cleaning solution (Ultrasil-10) at 50 °C, combined with a crossflow of 1 m s−1, the permeability was completely restored. Overall, this study demonstrates that by optimizing operational settings and cleaning conditions, a sustainable DMF process for wastewater treatment with controlled membrane fouling and improved resource recovery can potentially be developed for upscaling. Short abstractThis study investigated the effectiveness of direct membrane filtration for municipal wastewater treatment. It was found that physicochemical pre-treatment with polyaluminum chloride and polyamide significantly reduced membrane fouling and improved nutrient retention. Ultrafiltration membranes demonstrated superior performance and nutrient retention compared to microfiltration membranes. By optimizing operational parameters and cleaning conditions, a sustainable direct membrane filtration process with controlled fouling and improved resource recovery can be developed for wastewater treatment.

Exploring convective entropy optimization and activation energy impact on magneto-nanofluid flow over a vertical stretched plate with Hall current and nonlinear thermal radiation using SQLM

This paper investigates the profound impact of entropy generation and activation energy on the dynamics of hydromagnetic nanofluids, focusing on nonlinear thermal radiation, viscous and Ohmic dissipation, and Hall current effects over a linear stretching sheet. Various nanoparticles are incorporated into the nanofluid formulation using the thermophoresis and Brownian motion model. Through similarity transformation, the system of nonlinear equations is solved with high precision using the Spectral Quasilinearization Method (SQLM). Comprehensive analyses of velocity, cross-flow velocity, temperature, concentration, and entropy generation profiles are conducted for numerous physical parameters. Results indicate that velocity and cross-flow velocity increase with the Hall parameter while temperature and concentration profiles decrease. Both the velocity and cross-flow velocity profiles enhance for mixed convection parameters closer to the sheet, whereas the temperature and concentration profiles exhibit the contrary tendency. Prandtl number diminishes the profiles of horizontal velocity, cross-flow velocity and concentration distributions. Temperature distribution profile hikes for both the Brownian motion parameter and thermophoresis parameter. The activation energy parameter enhances the cross-flow velocity, with a corresponding decline in temperature distribution and a similar trend is observed in the concentration profile. Further, entropy generation profiles increase with higher Brinkman and Reynolds numbers while exhibiting mixed tendencies with the Schmidt number. These findings reveal that Hall current introduces complex interactions within the nanofluid flow, significantly influencing thermal, concentration, and entropy generation characteristics, particularly in magnetic fields and activation energy.

Optimized ceramic membrane-based method for efficient and acid-free rice protein preparation from alkaline extracts

Rice protein, stands out as a high-quality plant-based protein, suitable for dietary supplementation and food processing. Traditional methods, involving alkaline extraction and acid precipitation, are challenged by the extensive use of chemicals and the difficulty in desalination. This study proposed a novel separation method that utilizes ceramic membranes for direct alkali filtration, eliminating the formation of salts by acid neutralization. The membrane pore size and the operating parameters such as transmembrane pressure, cross-flow velocity, and pH were optimized to enable a high flux (>80 L m−2·h−1) and favorable protein rejection (>95 %) while permitting the removal of excess alkali. Additionally, the effects of non-protein substances, e.g., starch, present in the alkaline extract on the separation performance were explored. Subsequently, an optimized strategy for starch removal was proposed, involving the concentration of the alkali extract using an ultrafiltration membrane, followed by enzymatic hydrolysis of starch and diafiltration to eliminate the residuals of starch hydrolysates and alkali. Under stabilization of protein particles by carboxymethyl cellulose, rice protein with a uniform particle size of 25 nm and a purity of over 80 % was produced. The direct removal of alkali from alkali extracts of rice by ceramic membranes presents a promising strategy for producing rice protein with high purity and reduced aggregation degree, enabling better functionalities such as solubility than the conventional alkali-extraction and acid-precipitation method.

A Novel Modeling Optimization Approach for a Seven-Channel Titania Ceramic Membrane in an Oily Wastewater Filtration System Based on Experimentation, Full Factorial Design, and Machine Learning.

This comprehensive study looks at how operational conditions affect the performance of a novel seven-channel titania ceramic ultrafiltration membrane for the treatment of produced water. A full factorial design experiment (23) was conducted to study the effect of the cross-flow operating factors on the membrane permeate flux decline and the overall permeate volume. Eleven experimental runs were performed for three important process operating variables: transmembrane pressure (TMP), crossflow velocity (CFV), and filtration time (FT). Steady final membrane fluxes and permeate volumes were recorded for each experimental run. Under the optimized conditions (1.5 bar, 1 m/s, and 2 h), the membrane performance index demonstrated an oil rejection rate of 99%, a flux of 297 L/m2·h (LMH), a 38% overall initial flux decline, and a total permeate volume of 8.14 L. The regression models used for the steady-state membrane permeate flux decline and overall permeate volume led to the highest goodness of fit to the experimental data with a correlation coefficient of 0.999. A Multiple Linear Regression method and an Artificial Neural Network approach were also employed to model the experimental membrane permeate flux decline and analyze the impact of the operating conditions on membrane performance. The predictions of the Gaussian regression and the Levenberg-Marquardt backpropagation method were validated with a determination coefficient of 99% and a Mean Square Error of 0.07.

Film Superposition Characteristics With Laidback Fan-Shaped Holes Under the Influence of Internal Crossflow

Abstract In the serpentine passage of actual rotor blades, the coolant at the inlet of the film hole has an internal crossflow. The internal crossflow significantly influences the film cooling effectiveness of multi-row film holes. This paper presents a numerical investigation of the superposition characteristics of multiple rows of laidback fan-shaped holes under the influence of internal crossflow. The numerical simulations utilize the RANS method considering the effects of blowing ratio, crossflow velocity ratio, arrangement patterns, and row-to-row spacing of the internal crossflow on the superposition characteristics of film holes. The results indicate that film cooling effectiveness exhibits a distinctly asymmetric distribution under crossflow conditions. At different blowing ratios, there exists an optimal crossflow velocity ratio, at which the laterally averaged film cooling effectiveness is maximized. The crossflow-to-jet velocity ratio (VRi) is utilized to comprehensively evaluate the impact of blowing ratios and crossflow velocity ratios, and the range of high area-averaged film cooling effectiveness is accurately captured. Regarding the study of arrangement patterns and row-to-row spacings, it has been found that under identical coolant mass flowrates, the staggered arrangement is better than the inline arrangement in both laterally averaged film cooling effectiveness and cooling uniformity. Meanwhile, reducing the row-to-row spacing leads to an improvement in laterally averaged film cooling effectiveness. Finally, an assessment of the Sellers model's applicability under crossflow conditions revealed that it demonstrates good applicability in cases of staggered arrangement with lower blowing ratios.

Investigation of aerodynamic loss mechanism on turbine leading edge with slot film cooling based on entropy analysis

Discrete film holes are a widely used cooling structure, with increasing cooling performance demands making their optimization increasingly complex. The structure of slot cooling is simpler compared to discrete holes, but it results in greater flow losses while improving cooling performance. To elucidate the sources and mechanisms of losses in slot cooling, this study employs numerical simulations based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) method. The investigation focuses on the leading-edge cooling of high-pressure turbine guide vanes, using entropy analysis to thoroughly examine the effects of blowing ratio (M) and slot spacing on loss location, composition, characteristics, and mechanisms. The results indicate that the losses associated with hole structures are not sensitive to changes in blowing ratio, while the entropy generation in slot structures generally increases with higher blowing ratios. Near the corner region, the traction effect of the horseshoe vortex expands the thermal loss region of the coolant, weakening the heat exchange in hole structures but significantly enhancing it in slot structures. The hole/slot structures have a minimal impact on the location of the passage vortex core, reducing the cross-flow velocity and cross-flow layer thickness. The greater flow losses are primarily due to increased passage vortex intensity. Slot cooling can achieve superior cooling performance at low M compared to hole structures at high M, with both having similar total pressure loss. However, the thermal losses for slot structures increase by approximately 55 % compared to hole structures on the pressure side of the leading edge, with even more significant increases on the suction side, while the maximum increase in viscous losses is only about 10 %.

Forward osmosis for concentrating lithium-enriched brine: From membrane performance to system design

Using concentrated salt-lake brine as the draw solution (DS), forward osmosis (FO) has been proposed as the low carbon footprint concentration technology for extracting water from lithium-enriched brine. From membrane modules to a process, there exist tremendous risks when considering total cost in time and investment for a trial. To address this issue, a bridge between the FO membrane/ module characteristics and a FO system design is highly desirable. This study for the first time developed a system design model using hollow fiber (HF) FO membrane modules for FO concentration of lithium-enriched brine. The concentration polarization along the module, the membrane structural parameters (S), crossflow velocity, and DS concentration were the main factors considered in the model. The effect of all factors on module water flux and total membrane area was systematically investigated for a typical industrial output of 10 k ton of Li2CO3. A master curve of the water flux verse feed concentration for the tailor-made HF modules was utilized as the basis. On a module scale, the structural parameter S is of first importance and indicates requirement of FO membranes with low S. The crossflow velocity has relatively small impact to the membrane area, but not negligible. On a system scale, the empirical equation of the structural parameters and crossflow velocity on the theoretical minimum system membrane area was summarized. The results show that increasing the stages can reduce the number of modules and required DS flow. Increasing DS dilution rate in system design efficiently utilizes the osmotic pressure of DS. The present model serves as a practical solution for process optimization and FO membrane selection. The methodology is valuable for other FO applications using HF FO membranes.

Analysis of membrane fouling during microfiltration of copper sulfide precipitates

Membrane filtration, particularly MF-UF, has previously been assessed as an attractive process for clarifying and recovering valuable metals from metal sulfide precipitation. Previous results of the high transmembrane flux achieved have shown to be promising. However, those studies were primarily focused on demonstrating the method’s feasibility and estimating its performance under different operational conditions. Based on that, this study represents a significant advancement in the field, assessing the fouling behavior and its impact on process performance during the microfiltration of metal sulfide precipitates. Different operational conditions were evaluated using commercial microfiltration membranes operating in batch and continuous regimes, varying Cu concentration in the feed solution (200 and 1800 mg/L), and cross-flow velocities (0.2 – 0.16 m/s). Batch recirculation tests had over 80 % better flux results than the long-term continuous-mode operation tests, mainly due to a progressive decline in the membrane flux observed at longer operation times.Moreover, the cross-flow velocity evaluation indicated that elevated tangential flow rates might result in a decline in the performance of particles with high aggregation behavior. Analyses with modified Hermia’s models and with SEM-EDX image characterizations demonstrated that cake filtration represents the primary fouling mechanism in this process under long-term operation. The present study offers crucial insights that will inform the further development of MF for the treatment of metal sulfide precipitates.

Transport enhancement in the laminar rotating disk boundary layer

Enhanced momentum and heat transport in a three-dimensional rotating disk boundary layer due to the consideration of a wavy disk surface is an already known fact in the literature. Such a transport enhancement is primarily associated with two fundamental attributes of the wavy disk: the increased surface area and the enhanced convection due to the surface undulations. However, there exists no further information about their individual role, mutual interaction, and individual share in enhancing the convective transport in the rotating disk boundary layer. This study aims to investigate these facts in detail by considering radially heterogeneous different wavy configurations on the disk surface. It is revealed that the said attributes contribute non-trivially to enhance the transport phenomena. Their impactful role is identified due to the strengths of circumferential and crossflow velocity components, the magnitude of flow swirl angle, and hence due to the coefficients of skin friction and their inter relationship. In this regard, a fundamental benchmark regarding the relative strength of the two coefficients of skin friction is identified from the flat disk case. Decisive observations regarding the impact of surface undulations and the increased surface area of the wavy disk on the enhanced convective transport are made with the aid of this benchmark. It is observed that the enhanced transport phenomena, especially the heat transfer, mainly depend upon the further dominance of the circumferential velocity component. In the situations of increased dominance of rotational flow Kw>Kf, the increased convection and surface area collectively contribute to enhance the thermal transport while in a reverse situation Kw<Kf the convection contributes adversely by even reducing the impact of the increased surface area. In the neutral situation where the dominance of rotational velocity is neither increased nor decreased (i.e., Kw≈Kf), any increase in the transport phenomena is wholly due to the increased surface area. Therefore, the presence of surface undulations or increase in surface area is not the only criterion for an optimum rise in the transport phenomena, rather the impact of surface undulations on the velocity profiles is important which is manipulated due to their positioning on the disk surface. It is observed that the presence of surface undulations in the central and intermediate regions on the disk surface causes to increase the gradients of the crossflow velocity while their presence in the near rim location causes to enhance the gradients of the circumferential velocity. Thus, the configurations that have higher undulations in the near rim region outperform the other configurations.

Improved Design Method for Hypersonic Intakes Using Pressure-Corrected Osculating Axisymmetric Flows Method

The efficient design of air intake is crucial for high-speed airbreathing propulsion systems. This paper presents a novel design method that integrates the recently introduced internal conical flow M (ICFM) basic flowfield (Musa et al., “New Parent Flowfield for Streamline-Traced Intakes,” AIAA Journal, Vol. 61, No. 7, 2023, pp. 2906–2921) with the pressure-corrected osculating axisymmetric flows and streamline tracing techniques. The new design method takes into account the effects of lateral pressure gradients by incorporating pressure corrections into the original design method using crossflow velocity information from the ICFM flowfield. Additionally, new entrance and throat profiles are introduced for designing two hypersonic internal waverider intakes with shape transition. One intake is designed using the new method, and the other using the original method. Viscous simulations have been performed at design (i.e., Mach 6.0) and off-design (i.e., Mach 4.0 and 3.5) conditions. The results indicate that the pressure-corrected intake exhibits superior performance in terms of total pressure recovery and reduced flow distortion. This reveals that the new design method can achieve a smooth shape and efficient aerodynamic transitions between the intake entrance and throat. The new entrance and throat profiles realized better performance than the typical ones. The startability analysis reveals that the Van Wie curve controls the considered intakes. Thus, combining the pressure-corrected osculating axisymmetric flows with the ICFM flowfield enhances the performance of hypersonic intakes, making this approach a promising avenue for future hypersonic vehicles.

Parameterized physics-informed neural networks (P-PINNs) solution of uniform flow over an arbitrarily spinning spherical particle

Neural network-based approaches have emerged as alternatives to conventional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in solving multiphase flow problems. However, most of these approaches are based on data-driven machine learning methods that require training datasets prepared beforehand through CFD simulations or experiments and cannot be used independently. This study presents an unsupervised parameterized physics-informed neural networks (P-PINNs) approach for obtaining the full flow field information over a multi-dimensional parametric space. This approach is then applied to solve the three-dimensional flow around an arbitrarily rotating sphere subjected to a cross-flow. This solution is obtained for a continuous range of three parameters: the Reynolds number based on cross-flow (Re∈[1,400]), non-dimensional streamwise and spanwise angular velocity components (Ωx∗,Ωy∗∈[−3,3]). The predictions from the P-PINNs model are compared against particle-resolved direct numerical simulation (PR-DNS) results, demonstrating that the neural network model predicts all flow variables (velocity, pressure, and their spatial derivatives) accurately with R2≳0.9. The force and torque on the particle obtained from the P-PINNs model are also compared well against the corresponding PR-DNS results with R2>0.94. The key observation is that the computational cost of the unsupervised parameterized neural network model training and deployment is substantially lower than performing numerous conventional CFD simulations to systematically vary the parameters. Furthermore, once trained, the resultant neural network model is substantially more compact than the huge database of discretized numerical solutions. The P-PINNs model is then used to reveal several interesting flow features and phenomena about the rotating sphere, including flow symmetry, secondary drag and lift, critical Reynolds number, flow bifurcation, and flow separation. This study presents P-PINNs as an efficient alternative for solving parameterized flow problems, demonstrating its practical usage in flow physics discovery with the example of flow past an arbitrarily rotating sphere.

Stratified structure of membrane clogs observed in full scale cross-flow tubular ultrafiltration (UF) system: Fouling characterization and a proposed two-stage formation mechanism

Membrane fouling remains a significant challenge in wastewater treatment, hindering both efficiency and lifespan. This study reports a distinct phenomenon of stratified membrane clogging observed in a full-scale cross-flow tubular ultrafiltration (UF) system treating sludge anaerobic digestion (AD) reject water. The distinct stratified structure, comprising inner and outer layers within the cake layer, has not been previously described. This research involved characterizing the filtration performance, analyzing membrane clog composition, and proposing a two-stage formation mechanism for the stratified clogs. It was revealed that higher inorganic and lower organic content in the outer layer compared to the inner layer. Acid and alkali treatments demonstrated the effectiveness of combined cleaning strategies. A mathematical model was developed to determine the critical conditions for stratified clog formation, influenced by membrane flux and cross-flow velocity (CFV). It is proposed that outer layer forms through long-term selective deposition, while the inner layer results from short-term dewatering within limited tubular space. High CFV (>2.5 m/s) prevents inner layer formation. Critical conditions for stratification occur at a flux of 18 L/m2/h with a CFV of 0.1 m/s or 65 L/m2/h with a CFV of 0.35 m/s. This study contributes a novel understanding of stratified membrane clogging, proposing a two-stage formation mechanism and identifying critical conditions, which provides insights for effective fouling control strategies and maintenance of operational efficiency for membrane systems.

Pre-concentration of lithium-rich brine via direct contact membrane distillation: Conditional analysis

The objective of this study is to employ membrane distillation (MD) for the preconcentration of lithium from Salt Lake. Considering the intricate correlation between the physical properties of the solution and the operational conditions, a theoretical estimation and verification of the mass transfer coefficient in MD process are conducted using pure water. Furthermore, a comparison is made on the effects of different cross flow velocities (CFVs) and feed temperature (FT) on MD concentration for lithium chloride solutions ranging from 0.3 g/L to 5 g/L, as well as simulated Salt Lake brine. When CFVs are set at 350 mL/min, after 600 mins of MD treatment, a permeation flux of 23.91 kg/(m2·h) is achieved for a 2 g/L lithium chloride solution. In addition, when 0.3 g/L lithium chloride solution is treated by MD for 600 mins and the FT is increased from 40℃ to 60℃, the permeate flux increases linearly from 13.21 kg/(m2·h) to 42.27 kg/(m2·h), an increase of up to 220 %, and the reject rate reaches more than 99 % at this time. This study demonstrates that employing MD process in preconcentrating lithium from Salt Lake can effectively extract valuable lithium resources through downstream processes.

Fractionation and refining of pectic oligosaccharides derived from onion skins through continuous feed diafiltration

In this work, a diafiltration-based process was investigated for the recovery of pectic oligosaccharides produced by subcritical water hydrolysis from onion skin waste. Four tubular ceramic membranes from 100 to 1 kDa were selected based on the molecular weight of the different galacturonic acid species present in the onion skin hydrolysate. All these membranes showed high selectivity towards pectic oligosaccharides, with low retention for free galacturonic acid, monosaccharides, organic acids, and other impurities. The 50 and 100 kDa membranes completely retained pectic oligosaccharides with a molecular weight exceeding 80 kDa, accounting for approximately 30 % of the initial pectic oligosaccharides in the hydrolysate. However, the purification rate was significantly slower using the 50 kDa membrane due to the increased cake layer resistance. Furthermore, it was examined a fractionation/purification cascade involving sequential diafiltration stages using 100, 10, and 1 kDa membranes at 25 °C, TMP = 1 bar, and a crossflow velocity of 1.5 m s−1. Approximately 87 % of the initial pectic oligosaccharides were successfully recovered and purified in the retentates, highlighting their potential for diverse applications due to their narrow molecular weight distribution, while phenolic compounds and other valuable low molecular weight molecules were recovered in the final permeate.

Effects of cross flow on the launching process of submarine-launched vehicle considering the 6-DOF motion at barrel-exit stage

Submarine-launched vehicle (SLV) is a research hotspot due to its strong strike capability, among which underwater launching technology is a key issue hindering its development. In this paper, a numerical model is proposed to simulate the launching problem of SLV. The high nonlinearity induced by the coupling of multi-degree-of-freedom motions and the interaction between fluid and structure is solved. Specifically, the 6-DOF motion model of structure considering its strong added-mass effect, cavitation model and collision model are adopted. This numerical model is firstly validated by simulating the launching of SLV in still water. And then, the applicability of this model is discussed, as well as the effect of cross flow and initial launching velocity on the launching process. The results indicate that proposed numerical model could be used under both low-speed and high-speed cross flow situations. Cross flow changes the attitude and locomotion state of SLV. When flow velocity exceeds 1.25 m/s, the collision occurs between SLV (with the initial launching velocity of 40 m/s) and its barrel. This obtained locomotion of SLV after leaving its barrel causes the launching failure. Besides, a method of increasing launching velocity is introduced to promote the success rate of launching in high-speed cross flow situation.

Effect of elevated crossflow temperature on jet primary atomization

Liquid jet in hot gas crossflow is widely employed in industrial combustion devices, especially in the propulsion systems. In this work, the effect of elevated crossflow temperature on the primary atomization of a liquid jet is experimentally investigated, including breakup regime, surface wavelength, column breakup height, and near-field trajectory. The experiments are conducted at crossflow temperatures of 300 K and 500 K, with gas Weber number ranging from 8.82 to 67.55 and momentum flux ratio from 10 to 50. The gas Weber number and momentum flux ratio are kept constant via increasing the crossflow velocity when crossflow temperature increases. The results show that the elevated crossflow temperature weakens surface breakup, particularly at high momentum flux ratios, which makes the transition of breakup regime from column breakup to surface breakup require higher gas Weber number or momentum flux ratio. Besides, the elevated crossflow temperature leads to a slight increase in surface wavelength, column breakup height and near-field trajectory, with the increase in trajectory being more pronounced at lower gas Weber numbers. Finally, an empirical correlation for the near-field trajectory is obtained, including the effects of crossflow temperature, gas Weber number, and momentum flux ratio.

Predictive modeling and insight into protein fouling in microfiltration and ultrafiltration through one-dimensional convolutional models

Membrane fouling, a critical issue in membrane performance associated with proteins, is often difficult to analyze due to limited knowledge of contamination scenarios. This study uses a one-dimensional convolutional neural network (ODCNN) to examine the complex relationships among membrane properties, protein characteristics, and operational parameters, aiming to elucidate the dynamics of protein-related contamination. To improve the predictive performance of the deep learning model, we propose a novel strategy that learns numerical and categorical features in sequence. Compared with the other seven conventional models, our results reveal that the ODCNN model shows the best performance, which achieves impressive coefficients of determination, reaching 0.833 for flux and 0.723 for protein rejection, indicating the model’s robustness even when dealing with incomplete information on membrane fouling. To mitigate the issue of insufficient data, we applied the Synthetic Minority Over-Sampling Technique to increase the dataset’s diversity, validating this approach with experimental evidence. To improve the interpretability of the model, we used the Shapley Additive exPlanations method to assess the contribution of various features, which revealed that membrane pore size, protein concentration, transmembrane pressure, and crossflow velocity are key factors influencing both flux and protein retention. We also analyzed the causes and assessed the degree of contamination according to the degree of their influence. By leveraging machine learning techniques to analyze and predict membrane filtration performance, particularly concerning protein fouling, this study demonstrates significant potential for practical applications in environments with limited information. This innovative approach is poised to contribute to ongoing advancements in membrane filtration technology and offers a promising pathway for enhancing the understanding and management of membrane fouling.

Optimizing fouling mitigation in membrane distillation by controlled microbubble size and concentration

Fouling control strategies play a crucial role in membrane distillation (MD) process, primarily due to the significant limitation of fouling during the scaling-up process. The utilization of microbubbles (MBs) aeration has exhibited promising potential in mitigating membrane fouling when treating high salinity wastewater. Aeration can introduce gas-liquid two-phase flow on the membrane surface, thereby increasing the membrane surface shear force. The mechanism of aeration technology for controlling fouling includes the following points: introduction of gas-liquid two-phase flow; physical substitution of concentration polarization layer; pressure pulses caused by bubbles flowing through the membrane surface and increasement of the cross flow velocity. This research aims to optimizing the effect of air MBs with different concentrations and sizes introduced in the feed side on membrane fouling control, we creatively used the method of releasing pressure gradiently to achieve size regulation of MBs within a certain range for the first time, firstly regulated the generation of MBs by manipulating gas flow rate and release pressure. Under the optimal condition of 40 mL/min and 0.6 MPa, it will yield concentration of 1.58 × 104/mL and D50 Sauter size of 64.69 μm MBs with pure water permeance flux of 12.32 kg/(m2·h). It was observed that higher gas flow rates primarily increased MBs concentration, while lower pressures predominantly reduced MBs size through the method of inline imaging. Experimental results indicated that introduction of MBs can slightly improve the temperature polarization coefficient and mass transfer coefficient under different operating modes. Consequently, further investigations focused on the influence of MBs characteristics on different fouling control. All conditions reach 99 % rejection for inorganic salt and HA. This study provided empirical evidence that higher concentration and larger size of MBs intensify the gas-liquid two-phase flow disruption and exhibit a better shear effect on scaling phenomena, which yield advantageous outcomes in terms of augmenting permeance flux and water vapor production, with permeance flux increased from 40.12 % to 55.42 % for inorganic fouling and increased from 68.35 % to 80.15 % for inorganic and HA fouling. These results were confirmed via membrane surface using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. In summary, this research aided in identifying appropriate operating conditions for mitigating inorganic and composite scaling by implementing air-infused MBs in direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD), which provides scientific and technical guidance for controlling fouling in MD in practical applications.