Unsteadiness and transition to turbulence in woven spacer filled channels for Membrane Distillation

To characterize the performance of Membrane Distillation (MD) modules, channels filled with woven spacers were investigated by Computational Fluid Dynamics (including Direct Numerical Simulations and the use of the SST k -ω turbulence model) and by parallel experiments with Thermochromic Liquid Crystals. The cases considered here regard mutually orthogonal filaments with a spacer pitch to channel height ratio P / H =2, two spacer orientations θ with respect to the main flow (0° and 45°), and bulk Reynolds numbers Re from ∼200 to ∼2000, an interval of great interest in practical MD applications. For both values of θ, CFD predicted steady-state flow for Re up to ∼300, and chaotic flow for Re larger than ∼400. In the intermediate range Re≈300-400, periodic flow regimes were predicted for both orientations. These regimes were of particular interest and complexity, as they exhibited a slow global oscillation of the flow superimposed on high order harmonics corresponding to fast local oscillations. Experiments confirmed the appearance of unsteadiness for Re>∼300. Heat transfer and friction were little affected by unsteadiness and exhibited a smooth behaviour with Re. The agreement with the experimental results was good using DNS, and acceptable using RANS. (paper)