SIMULATION OF VELOCITY AND CONCENTRATION FIELDS IN ARTIFICIAL KIDNEYS

In this work, velocity and concentration fields on both sides of blood and dialysate in artificial. kidneys are simulated, not only coupling the convection and diffusion mass transfers across the hollow fiber membrane, but also considering both effects of the inlet and outlet structure of blood and dialysate. Our results show that compared to the blood velocity field, the dialysate velocity filed is more uneven; furthermore, the inlet and outlet structure of dialysate affects not only the concentration field on the dialysate side but the one on the blood side as well. Therefore, in practice, for the structure optimization of artificial kidneys, the inlet and outlet of dialysate should be focused on.