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Updated: Apr 27, 2026

Experimental Multiscale Methodology for Predicting Material Fouling Resistance
Deposit membrane fouling: influence of specific cake layer resistance and tangential shear stresses
A Charfi1, J Harmand2, N Ben Amar3
1Institut Européen des Membranes (IEM), Université Montpellier 2, place Eugene Bataillon, CC05, 34095 Montpellier, France E-mail: amine.charfi@ymail.com; Laboratoire de Modélisation Mathématique et Numérique dans les Sciences de l'Ingénieur, ENIT, B. P 37 Le Belvédère 1002 Tunis, Tunisia and Institut National des Sciences Appliquées et de Technologie, B. P. 676, 1080 Tunis Cedex, Tunisia.
Abstract:
Cake fouling is the leading cause of membrane permeability decrease when filtering mixed liquor suspension containing high suspended solid concentrations. A simple model is proposed to simulate the cake resistance evolution with time by considering a macro-scale fouling linked only to the accumulation of particles on the membrane surface. This accumulation appears as the difference between the flux of deposited particles due to the filtration and the flux of particles detached from the membrane surface due to the tangential shear stresses caused by recirculation flow in the sidestream membrane bioreactor (MBR) or gas sparging close to the membrane surface for submerged MBR configuration. Two determining parameters were then highlighted: the specific cake resistance and the 'shear parameter'. Based on these parameters it is possible to predict model outputs as cake resistance and permeate flux evolution for short-time filtration periods.
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