Simulation of Water Transport through Nano-Foam Filter
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Date
2015-09
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Our world has shortage of water for household use especially potable water. People; researchers are putting their effort since early 4000 B.C. to find the solution. This time the world put trust on nanotechnology to alleviate the problem of drinking water. However there are challenges in the area. These are mainly related to membrane stability, lifetime, and lack of fundamental understanding of the process performance that can be translated in to modeling and simulation tools.
This study aimed to obtain the best composition and arrangement of polyurethane foam, activated carbon particle and silver nanoparticle in order to gage 2 to 3 L/h flow rate of water through simulation. Extensive literature reviews were made to know concepts, theories and previous findings in the area of Nanofiltration, specifically in water filtration. For the simulation, the finite element software COMSOL Multiphysics version 4.3 or 2012 release has been used. Simulation is done for 10PPI, 20PPI, 30PPI, 40PPI, 50PPI, 60PPI, 70PPI and, 90PPI polyurethane foam with different size, numbers and arrangements of activated carbon particles. Finally, nine best combinations of polyurethane foam with activated carbon particles and silver nanoparticles are identified based on the result of the simulation. Conclusions and some recommendations for future researchers are also made.
Key words: Flow rate, flow through porous media, polyurethane foam, activated carbon, silver nanoparticle, simulation
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Keywords
Flow rate; flow through porous media; polyurethane foam; activated carbon; silver nanoparticle; simulation