Flow behavior and mass transfer of humid air across fiber membrane bundles. (5th May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Liu, Yilin; Zhang, Sicong; Cui, Xin; Su, Jincai; Yan, Weichao; Jin, Liwen
• Is Part Of: Applied thermal engineering. Volume 207(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-05-05
• Subjects: Membrane bundle -- Staggered -- Inline -- Dehumidification -- Mass transfer -- Crossflow; Heat engineering -- Periodicals; Heating -- Equipment and supplies -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 621.40205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2022.118200
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1359-4311

Abstract

Highlights: Staggered and inline fiber arrangements were modelled to study air dehumidification. Inline mode shows a better effect on balancing vapor separation and flow resistance. A fluctuating region of mass flux is detected with increasing transmembrane pressure. Dehumidification capacity deteriorates with the increase of fiber pitch. An increment of 0.05 mm thickness promotes dehumidification rate by 6.15%. Abstract: In the present work, staggered and inline arranged membrane components are modeled to numerically investigate the flow behavior and mass transfer of humid air across the fiber membrane bundles. For the dehumidification purpose, the humid air flows over the outer surface of the composite membrane fibers, and the lumen side of the membrane maintains a negative pressure where the permeated water vapor is removed from the suction port. The study of flow behavior showed that the velocity contours are denser near the membrane outer wall for both configurations, while a fluid stagnation zone is observed in the staggered arrangement. Through the analysis of the flow and concentration fields in the two configurations, it was found that for the fiber membranes with small radius, the inline arrangement possesses more advantages in terms of dehumidification capacity and energy efficiency. Consequently, the effects of the dimension parameters of inline arrangement on the dehumidification performance of membrane bundles were further explored. The results indicated that the increase of tube pitch has a negative effect on the dehumidification rate. In addition, thickening the thickness of the membrane support layer and decreasing the fiber radius are conducive to the dehumidification performance.