Stochastic Microstructure Delineation and Flow Simulation in Asymmetric Block Copolymer Ultrafiltration Membranes

Stochastic Microstructure Delineation and Flow Simulation in Asymmetric Block Copolymer Ultrafiltration Membranes

M. Sadegh Riasi, Lieihn Tsaur, Yuk Mun Li, Qi Zhang, Ulrich Wiesner, Lilit Yeghiazarian

Asymmetric block copolymer ultrafiltration membranes have a wide range of applications from water purification and virus filtration all the way to drug delivery. Although optimizing flow is critical to the performance of such membranes, their numerical flow characterization has remained challenging. The main problems include hierarchical pore structure delineation and lack of an efficient, image-based pore-scale modeling approach. In this study, we use 2D SEM images with a variety of resolutions to delineate the hierarchical asymmetric pore structure and a novel stochastic pore network model to simulate flow. Our results show good agreement between simulated and measured permeabilities.

Journal of Membrane Science, 668, 2116 (2023)
Corresponding Author: Lilit Yeghiazarian

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