Filtration at large pressures for strongly flocculated suspensions

Filtration using large pressures is an effective method for removing liquids from a flocculated suspension and creating a high volume fraction filtercake. Recent experimental work exhibits phenomena that are unexplained by previous calculations with nonlinear models. These models are modified and now predict the region of clear liquid and the high concentration of the filtercake observed in filtration at large pressure. The governing equations are based on the assumption that, at sufficiently high volume fractions, a network forms through the aggregation of flocs and possesses a compressive yield stress Py(φ) that depends only on the local volume fraction φ.