Fouling mitigation in crossflow filtration using chaotic advection: A numerical study

Fouling mitigation in a crossflow filtration system using chaotic advection is numerically studied. A barrier‐embedded partitioned pipe mixer (BPPM) is selected as a static mixer, creating chaotic advection in a laminar flow regime. Mixing characteristics are controlled via two design parameters, the mixing protocol and the dimensionless barrier height (β). The average dimensionless concentration boundary layer thickness (δ¯B/R) and the surface‐averaged dimensionless wall concentration (c¯w) dramatically decrease with the introduction of the BPPM, incorporating a chaotic flow system. δ¯B/R and c¯w decrease as β increases, and the largest reduction of c¯w is observed in the counter‐rotational protocol. A semi‐ring configuration is revealed to be the most appropriate configuration to characterize mixing near the membrane surface. It is found that a filtration system with a globally chaotic flow shows the best mixing performance and the largest reduction of fouling.