Quantitative evaluation of the interfacial interactions between a randomly rough sludge floc and membrane surface in a membrane bioreactor based on fractal geometry.
In this paper, a new method for quantification of interfacial interactions between a randomly rough particle and membrane surface was proposed. It was found that sludge flocs in a membrane bioreactor were of apparent fractal characteristics, and could be modeled by the modified two-variable Weierstrass-Mandelbrot (WM) function. By combining the surface element integration (SEI) method, differential geometry and composite Simpson's rule, the quantitation method for calculating such interfacial interactions was further developed. The correctness and feasibility of the new method were verified. This method was then applied to evaluate the interfacial interactions between a randomly rough particle and membrane surface. It was found that, randomly rough particle possesses stronger interaction strength than regularly rough particle but weaker strength than smooth particle with membrane surface, indicating significant effects of surface morphology and roughness. The proposed method in this study has broad application prospect in membrane fouling study.
College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, PR China.
Meijia
M
Zhang
College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, PR China.
Xiaoling
X
Zhou
College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, PR China.
Liguo
L
Shen
College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, PR China.
Xiang
X
Cai
College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, PR China.
Fangyuan
F
Wang
College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, PR China.
Jianrong
J
Chen
College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, PR China. Electronic address: linhonjun@163.com.
Hongjun
H
Lin
College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, PR China.
Renjie
R
Li
College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, PR China.
Xilin
X
Wu
Department of Chemical Engineering, Lakehead University, 955 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, Ontario P7B 5E1, Canada.
Bao-Qiang
BQ
Liao
D019149:Bioreactors; D017709:Fractals; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D010316:Particle Size; D012722:Sewage; D013499:Surface Properties
D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D012722:Sewage
Fractal geometry; Interfacial interaction; Membrane bioreactor; Membrane fouling; Randomly rough surface