Experimental analysis of Taylor vortex solid-liquid separation

Abstract

It is known that rotating membrane filtration using a Taylor-Couette vortex flow (TCVF) system has an effect which reduces build-up of a cake layer on a surface of membrane filter. Although it is expected that the effect leads, for example to development of a new hemodialysis filter, fluid dynamic analysis is seldom performed. Here, TCVF is visualized by laser sheet device to study the fundamental vortex structure and then, by replacing the rigid inner cylinder with the filter, the particle-liquid separation through the inner rotating filter is performed with the TCVF. Supposing a future compact design, the aspect ratio, Γ (=H/d, H is the height of the device and d is the gap width between inner and outer cylinders) of the TCVF device is set up as small as about 3, which means that a vortex structure contacts with the upper or lower boundary-end is affected by the Ekman boundary layer.