The effect of pulsatile flows on the transport across membranes: An analytical and experimental study

Pulsatile flows have shown to increase the permeation flux in reverse osmosis studies and to reduce fouling that exists in using membranes for separation processes. However, this study demonstrates that permeation from the inside of a hollow fiber with a membrane boundary to the outside decreases once pulsations are added to the inside of the membranes. The increase in the axial flux due to the flow pulsations are the reason for the increased permeation in reverse osmosis and the decrease in transport from inside to outside. An analytical model for a two-dimensional system is presented along with experimental results in separating oxygen from air using polycarbonate based hollow fiber membranes.