MATHEMATICAL-MODELING OF PERMEATE FLOW IN MULTICHANNEL CERAMIC MEMBRANE

Permeate flow in multichannel ceramic membrane element was simulated t o study numerically the effect of element configuration on its flux pe rformance. Simple rectangular honeycomb configuration was chosen for t his purpose. Under several assumptions the problem could be treated as 2-dimensional potential flow. The mathematical model was solved using a finite element method. Pressure and stream function fields were obt ained as the results of calculations. The effect of several dimensionl ess parameters on the flux performance was discussed. It was shown tha t there can be found an optimal configuration for which the performanc e has maximum for a given ratio of active membrane layer and membrane element porous body permeabilities.