Optimizing Water Disinfection: A CFD Study on Microorganisms Collision against a Triply Periodic Minimal Surface

Abstract

Currently, point-of-use (POU) disinfection technologies have a significant impact addressing the control of microbial pathogens in water.Among the physical factors related to microbial filtration/inactivation, the rate of particles collision with the disinfecting surface is crucial to guarantee satisfactory efficiency. Through a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model run in Ansys CFX software, this study assesses the collision dynamics of particles configured according to E. coli cells' parameters against an infill mesh, designed to be manufactured as a metallic disinfectant. The mesh, created using Python coding due to its complexity, is based on the Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) shape of the Schwarz P, providing a large surface area to volume ratio, with a geometry that allows high permeability. The efficiency of filtration was studied through analysis and comparison of different infill configurations, while also considering the pressure drop introduced by them, which is fundamental in the process' energy consumption.