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Computer-aided design of hollow-fiber dialyzers

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  • Dialysis
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Journal of Artificial Organs Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Blood and dialysate flow patterns in hollow-fiber dialyzers are complicated, and hence the flow patterns and mass transfer are difficult to analyze theoretically. Consequently, dialyzers are usually developed by a trial-and-error method. We attempt to design dialyzers by computer simulation analysis in this work. Blood-side and dialysate-side flows were modeled using the Hagen-Poiseuille equation and the Blake-Kozeny equation, respectively. These flow patterns were evaluated as pressure drop and velocity distribution. The mass transfer rate was evaluated as solute clearance. Computed values of the pressure drops and clearance for urea and vitamin B12 were found to agree closely with those obtained experimentally. We evaluated the influences of the inner diameter of hollow fibers, module geometry, and void fraction on the pressure drop and clearance, and computer-aided design was performed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Waseda University, 3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, 169-8555, Tokyo, Japan

    Yusuke Suzuki MS, Fukashi Kohori PhD & Kiyotaka Sakai PhD

Authors
  1. Yusuke Suzuki MS
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  2. Fukashi Kohori PhD
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  3. Kiyotaka Sakai PhD
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Correspondence to Kiyotaka Sakai PhD.

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Suzuki, Y., Kohori, F. & Sakai, K. Computer-aided design of hollow-fiber dialyzers. J Artif Organs 4, 326–330 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02480026

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02480026

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