Fluid–Structure Interaction and Flow Redistribution in Membrane-Bounded Channels

Giuseppe Battaglia, Luigi Gurreri, Andrea Cipollina, Antonina Pirrotta, Svetlozar Velizarov, Michele Ciofalo and Giorgio Micale
Additional contact information
Giuseppe Battaglia: Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, viale delle Scienze Ed. 6, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Luigi Gurreri: Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, viale delle Scienze Ed. 6, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Andrea Cipollina: Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, viale delle Scienze Ed. 6, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Antonina Pirrotta: Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, viale delle Scienze Ed. 6, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Svetlozar Velizarov: Associated Laboratory for Green Chemistry—Clean Technologies and Processes (LAQV), REQUIMTE, Chemistry Department, FCT, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Michele Ciofalo: Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, viale delle Scienze Ed. 6, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Giorgio Micale: Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, viale delle Scienze Ed. 6, 90128 Palermo, Italy

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 22, 1-25

Abstract: The hydrodynamics of electrodialysis and reverse electrodialysis is commonly studied by neglecting membrane deformation caused by transmembrane pressure (TMP). However, large frictional pressure drops and differences in fluid velocity or physical properties in adjacent channels may lead to significant TMP values. In previous works, we conducted one-way coupled structural-CFD simulations at the scale of one periodic unit of a profiled membrane/channel assembly and computed its deformation and frictional characteristics as functions of TMP. In this work, a novel fluid–structure interaction model is presented, which predicts, at the channel pair scale, the changes in flow distribution associated with membrane deformations. The continuity and Darcy equations are solved in two adjacent channels by treating them as porous media and using the previous CFD results to express their hydraulic permeability as a function of the local TMP. Results are presented for square stacks of 0.6-m sides in cross and counter flow at superficial velocities of 1 to 10 cm/s. At low velocities, the corresponding low TMP does not significantly affect the flow distribution. As the velocity increases, the larger membrane deformation causes significant fluid redistribution. In the cross flow, the departure of the local superficial velocity from a mean value of 10 cm/s ranges between −27% and +39%.

Keywords: electromembrane process; ion exchange membrane; profiled membrane; computational fluid dynamics; membrane deformation; flow maldistribution; numerical model; fluid structure interaction; Darcy flow; hydraulic permeability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/22/4259/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/22/4259/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:22:p:4259-:d:284982

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().