Flow through pore-size graded membrane pore network

Pore-size graded multilayered membrane filters have shown improved performance in terms of foulant retention and filtrate production. In this work, we model such a filter as a network of circularly cylindrical pores, whose radii decrease linearly across several layers of membrane material. Under two different filtration modes - flux extinction and flux threshold - we find that there exist performance-optimizing radius gradients, which correlate strongly with the depth of foulant penetration into the membrane.