Abstract
For evaluation and prediction of oxygen transfer rates in membrane oxygenators, use of the “length per transfer units”, L. T. U., is proposed. The L. T. U. is the membrane length Z divided by the number of transfer units, N. T. U., defined as the integral in Eq. (3), and is equal to LB/kLB. LB is the liquid rate per unit width of the membrane. kLB, the liquid phase coefficient for physical oxygen transfer in saturate blood, can be estimated from the data for physical oxygen absorption into any inert liquid in the same oxygenator. The N. T. U. can be calculated, given the PO2 values at the inlet and outlet of the oxygenator, constants in the Adair's equation, hematocrit etc.
Values of PO2 obtained in blood exygenation experiments with one type of membrane oxygenator, agreed well with predictions based on the data for oxygen absorption into dilute aqueous solutions of CMC in the same oxygenator.
