Finite element analysis on mechanical characteristic of nanoslit filtration membrane for artificial kidney

Abstract

FE analysis on mechanical characteristic of nanoslit membranes have been conducted. The study is aimed to investigate the feasibility of filtration membrane fabrication for an artificial kidney. The analysis is done using Comsol Multiphysics simulation on various slit geometry ranging from 6 to 40 nm width, and for 60 and 100 nm length on Si3N4 based filtration membrane having thickness ranging from 100 to 1000 nm in order to find optimum mechanical characteristic of the membrane. It is shown that the filtration membrane having thickness of above 400 nm has an appropriate mechanical strength to withstand applied pressure up to 55 mmHg. The larger the nanoslit size, the lower the deflection of the membrane due to stress imposed. The simulated result of the nanoslit filtration membrane can be used as a reference for the future fabrication of molecule selective filtration membrane for artificial kidney.