Modelling of permeability loss in membrane filtration: Re-examination of fundamental fouling equations and their link to critical flux

► Re-evaluation of flux decline with removal dependent upon shear stress. ► Found that “complete” pore blocking (n = 2) mode does not have a critical flux. ► Alternative hydrodynamic dependency for removal term explored. ► For this, and n = 1 and n = 0, final flux has a square root dependency on shear stress. ► Introduced integral method for finding the switch from one fouling mode to another.