Applying heat exchanger design methods to hemodialyzers

[hanson]

Hi all!
I don't see any medical engineering forum here, so please forgive me if I put this thread wrongly.
Is there anyone familiar with the design of hemodialyzers?
I will be doing a project in this area shortly.
Are the methods used in designing heat exchangers applicable in designing hemodialyzers?
Could anyone provide more information about it? I do a quick search in google but was unable to find irrelevant information...

 

[FredGarvin]

I admittedly have never heard of them. However, some quick searching shows this:
http://www.biomed.metu.edu.tr/courses/term_papers/artificial-kidney_celik_files/image011.gif
and here:
http://www.biomed.metu.edu.tr/courses/term_papers/artificial-kidney_celik_files/image010.jpg

Is this the contraption that you are referring? It appears to be nothing more than a specialized filter, not a heat exchanger. If that is the case, then I think heat exchangers may be the wrong area to concentrate. I do notice that this particular filter has two separate circuits like a heat exchanger, but heat transfer is not your main goal here, is it? I'm not sure in the whole dialysis process.

I would think you are looking at a fluid flow problem more than anything else, especially since you are dealing with blood which, IIRC, is a non-Newtonian fluid.

It's pretty interesting reading here. I hope it's applicable:
http://www.biomed.metu.edu.tr/courses/term_papers/artificial-kidney_celik.htm

I do a quick search in google but was unable to find irrelevant information...

I can find irrelevant information all day long. Sorry bud. I got a good laugh from that little slip of the keyboard.

 

[Danger]

Hi, Hanson;
I don't have time to look anything up just now, but Fred's correct that you don't need heat exchange. From what I've studied in the past (far past), dialysis machines are based primarily upon semi-permiable membranes. Some substances can pass through, and others can't. It might be worth checking into the Materials forum just in case the subject of membranes has shown up there.