Friction factors and roughness measurements of tubular mineral membranes

Abstract

No direct measurement of the relative roughness is available for mineral porous media because of the low mechanical resistance of such materials. In this study a method for the experimental determination of the internal diameter and the equivalent roughness is proposed for different commercial membranes tised in ultrafiltration and microfiltration processes. The use of classical friction factor correlations is also discussed. The main results are the estimation of the hydraulic diameter of tubular membranes and the use of a quadratic form in order to predict friction factors and the equivalent roughness with an accuracy better than 15%.