Vibration, Heat and Mass Transfer Characteristics of Hollow Fiber Membrane Humidification Under Flow-Induced Vibration

The hollow fiber membrane humidification modules are used for indoor humidification in hot–dry regions and heating in winter. The module is composed of several flexible hollow fiber membranes, which are bent and displaced by gravity and fluid forces. This paper is a further study of previous work that reveals the internal relationship between the forces generated by vortex shedding and fiber vibration. The central trajectories of fibers in the flow field are described for various pulsating flow and fiber structure parameters. The effects of fiber displacement on fluid flow, heat transfer, and mass transfer performance at different parameters are discussed. The results show that the fiber displacement in the flow field consists of two components: (i) deformation caused by fluid drag force and gravity and (ii) periodic vibration caused by periodic lift and drag force as vortices shed at the fiber surface. The fiber vibration facilitates the vortex shedding on the fiber surface, which enhances the convective heat and mass transfer performance on the fiber surface. The average friction factor (fm,v), Nusselt number (Num,v), and Sherwood number (Shm,v) increased by 12.9%, 39.3%, and 20.0%, respectively, when the fiber vibrated compared to non-vibration. This implies that inducing fiber vibration can optimize the heat and moisture transfer performance.