Direct contact ultrasound for fouling control and flux enhancement in air-gap membrane distillation

Air Gap Membrane distillation (AGMD) is a thermally driven separation process capable of treating challenging water types, but its low productivity is a major drawback. Membrane fouling is a common problem in many membrane treatment systems, which exacerbates AGMD’s low overall productivity. In this study, we investigated the direct application of low-power ultrasound (8–23 W), as an in-line cleaning and performance boosting technique for AGMD. Two different highly saline feedwaters, namely natural groundwater (3970 μS/cm) and RO reject stream water (12760 μS/cm) were treated using Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes. Theoretical calculations and experimental investigations are presented, showing that the applied ultrasonic power range only produced acoustic streaming effects that enhanced cleaning and mass transfer. Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR FT-IR) analysis showed that ultrasound was capable of effectively removing silica and calcium scaling. Ultrasound application on a fouled membrane resulted in a 100% increase in the permeate flux. Cleaning effects accounted for around 30–50% of this increase and the remainder was attributed to mass transfer improvements. Contaminant rejection percentages were consistently high for all treatments (>99%), indicating that ultrasound did not deteriorate the membrane structure. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis of the membrane surface was used to confirm this observation. The images of the membrane surface demonstrated that ultrasound successfully cleaned the previously fouled membrane, with no signs of structural damage. The results of this study highlight the efficient and effective application of direct low power ultrasound for improving AGMD performance.     

用于自适应波束形成语音增强的球谐域掩蔽函数估计方法

提出一种用于球形阵列自适应波束形成的掩蔽函数估计方法。该方法利用包含空间信息的球谐系数提取低维空间向量,并采用复高斯混合模型和深度学习两种方案来估计掩蔽函数,最终利用估计的掩蔽函数设计最小方差无失真响应波束形成器,以达到空域滤波的效果。理论分析和仿真实验证明,对于相同时长的声信号,球谐域掩蔽函数估计方法的计算复杂度比传统阵元域估计方法低了一个数量级。并且在大部分声场环境中,尤其在低信噪比情况下,所提方法的语音质量感知评估测度得分、分段信噪比和短时客观可懂度明显高于阵元域方法,三者最高分别可提升1.31 dB,4.54 dB和35%。另外,实际声学环境的测量实验也验证了所提方法在不影响可懂度的条件下比传统阵元域方法具备更高的降噪量。