Study on dynamic separation of silica slurry using a rotating membrane filter: 2. Modelling of cake formation

Abstract

In microfiltration the transport, deposition and removal of particles control cake formation on a filter. In this connection a new empirical model on cake formation, based on the wall shear stress, was tested here in comparison with experiments of fine silica slurry under Taylor-vortex flow. This model on a constant pressure operation expresses the deposition process for particles as two first-order steps in series of mass transfer and adhesion, and their removal process as a linear relation to the wall shear stress. The correlation resulting from fitting to experimental data represented the present cake resistances reasonably well. This study complements the work of Park et al. [J.Y. Park, C.K, Choi, J.J. Kim, A study on dynamic separation of silica slurry using a rotating membrane filter: 1. Experiments and filtrate fluxes, J. Membr, Sci. 97 (1994) 263] and it will also be helpful in analyzing fouling in heat exchangers. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.