Title: Study of the Effect of Surface Morphology on Mass Transfer and Fouling Behavior of Reverse Osmosis and Nanofiltration Membrane Processes

The influence of surface characteristics on membrane process performance is considered significant and is not well understood. This work evaluated mass transfer processes by incorporating surface morphology into a diffusion-based model assuming MTCs are dependent on the thickness variation of the membrane's active layer. To mathematically create such a layer, Gaussian random vectors embedded in MATLAB were used to generate a three-dimensional ridge and valley active layer morphologies. A "SMOOTH" script was incorporated to reduce the influence of outlying data. A non-homogeneous solution diffusion model (NHDM) was then developed to account for surface variation through the active layer. The NHDM was further modified by incorporating the concentration polarization (CP) effect. A fouling model was also established to evaluate the significance of surface morphology on membrane fouling behavior.