• cell filtration
• simulation

The aim of this work of thesis is the analysis of a filtration process in which cells are separated from an enzyme solution. That means trying to understand the forces acting on the cell once filtration process is started as to find the problems that occur during it. This analysis is made also to understand if this filtration is possible also taking in account production parameters. Part of this work was made at Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology in Aachen (Germany). Initially a state of art of methods used for separating cells was made to see if something similar to this filtration process had already been made and to evaluate what kind of forces and stresses are imposed on the cells. After that a set of tests was planned to understand the behaviour of the process and to collect data with different configurations of filtration in terms of pressure and membranes. Further tests were made after analysing the results of the first set of tests. Then a model was made to deeply understand what happens at the cell–membrane interface, by considering also the fluid flow. Simulations of the cell approaching the membrane under the same conditions running in the real tests were made. Different simulations have been made to see the differences between behaviour of cells with different membrane and conditions. At the end a final analysis was made trying to collect results coming from the whole tests and simulations made during this work of thesis.