Gas permeability in rarefied flow conditions for characterization of mineral membrane support

Abstract

Gas Permeability Measurement Technique (GPMT) has the advantage of being a non-destructive method, which is efficient in characterizing filtration membranes. Ceramic filtration membranes consist of successive layers of micro (support) to nano size (skin) pores. When gas flows through such a small scale structure, the molecular mean free path becomes comparable to the pore size. The Slip flow model, validated to describe the gas transport properties under rarefied flow conditions in a microchannel, is extended to porous media. The porous structure is modeled as a cluster of several identical cylindrical channels. By measuring the pressure drop ∆P at several different mean pressures, the pore radius and the porosity on square tortuosity ratio /τ 2 of the porous model structure that have the same flow property were estimated.