论文和技术资料

Flat membrane modules are widely used to study the membrane performance at the laboratory which is influenced by pressure and velocity. Most modules designed for laboratory studies have high pressure drop and abrupt changes of flow direction what yield to lack of uniform flow and pressure uncertainty over the membrane surface. With the aim to minimize these drawbacks, we developed a new module that has the manometers directly connected to two chambers intended to stabilize pressure into the flow chamber. We used COMSOL to determine the most appropriate dimensions of a module able to test membranes until 6 MPa. As the less homogeneous flow conditions happened at laminar flow, the flow was modeled using the Incompressible Navier-Stokes mode of the Chemical Engineering Module. Different positions of the stabilizing chambers were studied, and flow homogeneity was evaluated using the post-processing mode. The low pressure drop was confirmed experimentally.