Influence of Hydrodynamic Factors on the Biofilm Deformation in Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor (MABR) using Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI)
Keywords:
Membrane aerated biofilm reactor, Immobilised biofilm, Fluid structure interaction, COMSOL, Wastewater treatmentAbstract
Membrane aerated biofilm reactors (MABR) have emerged as a promising alternative for wastewater treatment, yet their performance is often limited by an incomplete understanding of the fluid structure interactions (FSI) that influence biofilm behaviour and mass transfer. This knowledge gap hampers the optimisation of MABR design for efficient pollutant and nitrogen removal. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the hydrodynamic factors on the biofilm deformation to achieve better performance of the MABR during the wastewater treatment process. The experimental setup has a limitation towards the investigation of the hydrodynamics factors, by applying the FSI of COMSOL® Multiphysics 5.3 software for data analysis, focusing on the hydrodynamic factors. It was found that at a lower inlet velocity (8.33 /s), the formation of biofilm thickness was greater (32 μm) in the rough surface as compared to the flat surface, which was 22. This study also found that the shear stress generated was proportional to the inlet velocity and had an opposite effect on biofilm formations. The COMSOL simulations indicated that a decrease in Young’s modulus (70 Pa) had increased the rate of biofilm deformation to 6 μm for the rough surface and 2 μm for the flat surface. This work has successfully justified the hydrodynamic factors pose a significant impact on the formation and deformation of the biofilm.
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