A Study on Hemodialyzer Membranes using Finite Element Analysis

A high flux membrane is modelled for hemodialyzers. The function of high flux membrane is simulated to observe its role in overall toxin clearance and retaining necessary solutes. In this study, hemodialyzer with a single membrane and multiple membranes are modelled using Finite element method. Toxin clearance is observed by varying different geometric parameters of the hollow fiber and velocity profile of the fluids such as blood and dialysate. Parameters are varied using combinations as per Taguchi algorithm for obtaining optimal results. Dialyzer with multiple membranes showed 20.97% better urea clearance than single membrane. Therefore, this design was further considered for the study of six solutes having different molecular weight ranging from low to high. Results shows that a multi layered membrane have better variance in toxin clearance than single layered hollow fiber membrane though loss of Albumin remains the same.