Comparative Hydrodynamic Assessment of Twill-Woven Feed Spacers in Flat-Sheet Ultrafiltration Membrane Cassettes: Balancing Hydraulic Resistance and Near-Membrane Flow Enhancement.
- 1College of Chemical Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Chaoyang Campus, Beijing 100029, China.
- 2Hangzhou Horizone Technologies Co., Ltd., Hangzhou 310018, China.
Abstract
Feed spacers can promote membrane-side transport in flat-sheet ultrafiltration channels, but the accompanying hydraulic resistance increases pumping demand. This study combined pure-water pressure-drop measurements with transient three-dimensional ANSYS Fluent simulations to compare a commercial 2/1 twill-woven spacer (T-Base) and 16 systematically varied candidate configurations. A geometry-resolved finite-volume model was evaluated through computational-domain, mesh, and time-step sensitivity assessments; the predicted pressure gradients agreed with the measurements with a mean relative deviation below 4%. The methodological novelty lies in integrating pressure-normalized near-wall efficacy, bilateral wall shear stress balance, and equal-area spatial sampling within a geometry-resolved, multi-indicator framework for comparing spacer configurations with different periodic lengths and mesh densities. At a 60° low attack angle and a superficial inlet velocity of 0.0551 m·s⁻¹, T3823 (filament spacing 0.38 mm, filament diameter 0.23 mm, spacer thickness 0.44 mm) provided the most favorable hydrodynamic trade-off among the 16 candidates. It produced a near-membrane velocity of 0.0220 m·s⁻¹ and a pressure gradient of 53.5 kPa·m⁻¹; its pressure-normalized near-wall efficacy was 1.23 relative to T-Base. T3823 also reduced bilateral membrane shear deviation from 24.91% to 8.30% and near-wall velocity dispersion by 50.7%. Overall, the results highlight the value of coordinated spacer-geometry optimization for balancing near-membrane flow enhancement and hydraulic resistance, with T3823 emerging as the most promising configuration among the candidates evaluated.
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BibTeX
@article{li2026comparative,
title = {{Comparative Hydrodynamic Assessment of Twill-Woven Feed Spacers in Flat-Sheet Ultrafiltration Membrane Cassettes: Balancing Hydraulic Resistance and Near-Membrane Flow Enhancement.}},
author = {Shu Li and Hongbo Huang and Dongzhu Wu and Junteng Liu},
journal = {Membranes},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.3390/membranes16100329},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42931007},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Comparative Hydrodynamic Assessment of Twill-Woven Feed Spacers in Flat-Sheet Ultrafiltration Membrane Cassettes: Balancing Hydraulic Resistance and Near-Membrane Flow Enhancement.
AU - Shu Li
AU - Hongbo Huang
AU - Dongzhu Wu
AU - Junteng Liu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/30
JO - Membranes
DO - 10.3390/membranes16100329
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42931007
AB - Feed spacers can promote membrane-side transport in flat-sheet ultrafiltration channels, but the accompanying hydraulic resistance increases pumping demand. This study combined pure-water pressure-drop measurements with transient three-dimensional ANSYS Fluent simulations to compare a commercial 2/1 twill-woven spacer (T-Base) and 16 systematically varied candidate configurations. A geometry-resolved finite-volume model was evaluated through computational-domain, mesh, and time-step sensitivity assessments; the predicted pressure gradients agreed with the measurements with a mean relative deviation below 4%. The methodological novelty lies in integrating pressure-normalized near-wall efficacy, bilateral wall shear stress balance, and equal-area spatial sampling within a geometry-resolved, multi-indicator framework for comparing spacer configurations with different periodic lengths and mesh densities. At a 60° low attack angle and a superficial inlet velocity of 0.0551 m·s⁻¹, T3823 (filament spacing 0.38 mm, filament diameter 0.23 mm, spacer thickness 0.44 mm) provided the most favorable hydrodynamic trade-off among the 16 candidates. It produced a near-membrane velocity of 0.0220 m·s⁻¹ and a pressure gradient of 53.5 kPa·m⁻¹; its pressure-normalized near-wall efficacy was 1.23 relative to T-Base. T3823 also reduced bilateral membrane shear deviation from 24.91% to 8.30% and near-wall velocity dispersion by 50.7%. Overall, the results highlight the value of coordinated spacer-geometry optimization for balancing near-membrane flow enhancement and hydraulic resistance, with T3823 emerging as the most promising configuration among the candidates evaluated.
SN - 2077-0375
ER -