The emerging ceramic membrane reactor,a process that combines the heterogeneous catalysis reaction with the membrane separation,can retain the ultrafine catalyst particles in situ and make the reaction process continuous.Therefore,it has attracted considerable attention in the field of heterogeneous catalysis,and made some industrial applications.However,for the goal of tons large-scale applications,there are still many issues that have yet to be resolved.The multiphase flow,membrane permeation filtration process and synergy between reaction and transport in membrane reactors become complex because of the multi-scale characteristic of membrane reactors.It is difficult for only choosing experimental means to realize real-time measurement of the multi-scale dynamic behavior.So,computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is regarded to be a promising approach to solve the problem discussed above.Dolecek and Cakl [1] did a research on a 19-channel hexagonal ceramic membrane,and confirmed that increasing filtration area can improve the ceramic membrane flux.Damak et al.[2] researched the flow and permeation process in membrane tubes,assumed the fluid flow to be under laminar,incompressible and isothermal conditions,and simulated the mass transfer in the tube and porous media by combining Darcy equation and Navier-Stokes equation.Peng et al.[3] simulated the permeation flow of pure water in a multi-channel membrane tube using a simplified model,and studied the interaction between channels.However,in practical applications,it is often required that a plurality of membrane tubes be arranged in the membrane module,and multiphase flow is coupled with reaction and separation,so more complex calculations close to the actual conditions are needed.In this study,a membrane permeation separation model was established,which was then used to simulate by Fluent the permeation separation process of suspension containing ultrafine particles in a multi-channel membrane module.We first simulated the flow and permeation process of pure water in large membrane modules,using the single phase model and the k - ε turbulence model.The membrane body was regarded as a porous medium,so the permeation flow was described by Darcys law and the Konzey - Carmen equation.Then,a mathematical model for describing the membrane permeation separation process was established.Besides,the permeation separation process of suspension containing ultrafine particles in a multi-channel membrane module was simulated by using the mixture multiphase model.We also conducted an analytical investigation on the distribution of fluid,pressure,velocity,and permeation flux in membrane modules.Finally,more than two kinds of standard membrane modules suitable for different ceramic membrane reactors were proposed by optimizing the configuration of membrane modules and operating conditions of permeation separation processes.