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While membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology is generally considered as one of the most promising technologies for wastewater treatment and recovery, membrane fouling remains the major obstacle limiting its applications. Interfacial interactions, which critically determine adhesion process and membrane fouling, were investigated in this study. It was found that, natural membrane surface was of a Gaussian surface obeying Gaussian distribution. A Gaussian approach integrating Fourier transform technique, Gaussian distribution and spectrum method was deduced to simulate rough surface topography of membrane. Thereafter, surface element integral (SEI) method, together with composite Simpson rule and triangulation of Gaussian surface was proposed to calculate interfacial interactions. By using the unified method, quantification of interfacial interactions with a Gaussian membrane surface was realized for the first time to date. It was further found that, membrane surface topography had profound impacts on interfacial interactions and adhesive fouling in the MBR. The deduced method can be used to address impacts of various factors on interfacial interactions and adhesive fouling, posing in-depth thermodynamic insights into membrane fouling and pointing towards its widespread potential in fouling research in MBRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modeling rough surfaces has emerged as a distinct discipline of considerable research interest in interface behaviors including membrane fouling. In this paper, a facile method was proposed to simulate rough membrane surface morphology. Natural membrane surface was found to be randomly rough, and its height distribution obeys Gaussian distribution. A new method which combines spectrum method, Gaussian distribution and Fourier transform technique was deduced. Simulation of the rough membrane surface showed high similarity in terms of statistical roughness and height distribution between the simulated surface and the real membrane surface, indicating feasibility of the new method. It was found that, correlation length ( l ) and the number of superposed ridges ( N ) are key parameters affecting the simulated membrane surface morphology. This new method has evident advantages over conventional modeling methods The proposed method for randomly rough membrane surface modeling could be potentially used to quantify the interfacial interactions between two rough surfaces, giving implications for membrane fouling mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]