Use of blood oxygenator membrane units in teaching mass balances, friction factor and mass transfer analysis

Many applications of chemical engineering principles are biomedical but traditional chemical engineering education does not focus on these applications. New laboratory experiments with hollow fiber blood oxygenators allow integration of concepts into already full programs. This work describes three new educational experiments that have been developed to introduce students to concepts of mass balances, mass transfer and momentum transfer as applied to a hollow fiber blood oxygenator. In addition, a new mass transfer correlation is presented for the Medtronic Affinity NT blood oxygenator, which has not been reported previously in the literature. Mass transfer of oxygen through the hollow fiber membranes is determined from measurements of the oxygen present in each stream crossing the system boundary and applying a mass balance. At 3.78 L/min of blood analog flow and 1 SCFH of oxygen delivery, a mass transfer of 70 mg/min was observed. Liquid pressure drop through the oxygenator is measured by calibrated pressure transducers and recorded in a spreadsheet. Analyzing the data produces a correlation between the Fanning friction factor and Reynolds number of f = 8.1/Re^0.12 instead of predicted f = 16/Re and manufacturer's data of f = 17.8/Re^0.89. A mass transfer correlation from dissolved oxygen concentrations was developed using the dimensionless Reynolds, Sherwood and Schmidt numbers: Sh/Sc^0.333 = 0.223Re^0.338.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S. Engineering

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Chemical Engineering

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• McIver, Keith

Contributors dc:contributor

• Farrell, Stephanie
• Merrill, Thomas

• Chemical engineering--Study and teaching; Biomedical engineering; Chemical engineering--Experiments
• Chemical Engineering

Repository record dc:identifier

https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/15

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:rdw.rowan.edu:etd-1014