83 research outputs found
Rotating Reverse-Osmosis for Water Purification
A new design for a water-filtering device combines rotating filtration with reverse osmosis to create a rotating reverse- osmosis system. Rotating filtration has been used for separating plasma from whole blood, while reverse osmosis has been used in purification of water and in some chemical processes. Reverse- osmosis membranes are vulnerable to concentration polarization a type of fouling in which the chemicals meant not to pass through the reverse-osmosis membranes accumulate very near the surfaces of the membranes. The combination of rotating filtration and reverse osmosis is intended to prevent concentration polarization and thereby increase the desired flux of filtered water while decreasing the likelihood of passage of undesired chemical species through the filter. Devices based on this concept could be useful in a variety of commercial applications, including purification and desalination of drinking water, purification of pharmaceutical process water, treatment of household and industrial wastewater, and treatment of industrial process water. A rotating filter consists of a cylindrical porous microfilter rotating within a stationary concentric cylindrical outer shell (see figure). The aqueous suspension enters one end of the annulus between the inner and outer cylinders. Filtrate passes through the rotating cylindrical microfilter and is removed via a hollow shaft. The concentrated suspension is removed at the end of the annulus opposite the end where the suspension entered
Influence of Rough and Smooth Walls on Macroscale Flows in Tumblers
Walls in discrete element method simulations of granular flows are sometimes
modeled as a closely packed monolayer of fixed particles, resulting in a rough
wall rather than a geometrically smooth wall. An implicit assumption is that
the resulting rough wall differs from a smooth wall only locally at the
particle scale. Here we test this assumption by considering the impact of the
wall roughness at the periphery of the flowing layer on the flow of
monodisperse particles in a rotating spherical tumbler. We find that varying
the wall roughness significantly alters average particle trajectories even far
from the wall. Rough walls induce greater poleward axial drift of particles
near the flowing layer surface, but decrease the curvature of the trajectories.
Increasing the volume fill level in the tumbler has little effect on the axial
drift for rough walls, but increases the drift while reducing curvature of the
particle trajectories for smooth walls. The mechanism for these effects is
related to the degree of local slip at the bounding wall, which alters the
flowing layer thickness near the walls, affecting the particle trajectories
even far from the walls near the equator of the tumbler. Thus, the proper
choice of wall conditions is important in the accurate simulation of granular
flows, even far from the bounding wall.Comment: 32 pages, 19 figures, regular article, accepted for publication in
Physical Review E 200
Slow axial drift in three-dimensional granular tumbler flow
Models of monodisperse particle flow in partially filled three-dimensional
tumblers often assume that flow along the axis of rotation is negligible. We
test this assumption, for spherical and double cone tumblers, using experiments
and discrete element method simulations. Cross sections through the particle
bed of a spherical tumbler show that, after a few rotations, a colored band of
particles initially perpendicular to the axis of rotation deforms: particles
near the surface drift toward the pole, while particles deeper in the flowing
layer drift toward the equator. Tracking of mm-sized surface particles in
tumblers with diameters of 8-14 cm shows particle axial displacements of one to
two particle diameters, corresponding to axial drift that is 1-3% of the
tumbler diameter, per pass through the flowing layer. The surface axial drift
in both double cone and spherical tumblers is zero at the equator, increases
moving away from the equator, and then decreases near the poles. Comparing
results for the two tumbler geometries shows that wall slope causes axial
drift, while drift speed increases with equatorial diameter. The dependence of
axial drift on axial position for each tumbler geometry is similar when both
are normalized by their respective maximum values
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