What is meant by counter current multiplier?

What is meant by counter current multiplier?

Countercurrent multiplication in the kidneys is the process of using energy to generate an osmotic gradient that enables you to reabsorb water from the tubular fluid and produce concentrated urine.

What is counter current exchange mechanism?

Countercurrent exchange is a mechanism occurring in nature and mimicked in industry and engineering, in which there is a crossover of some property, usually heat or some chemical, between two flowing bodies flowing in opposite directions to each other.

What is the role of the counter-current multiplier and exchanger in urine formation?

The counter-current multiplier or the countercurrent mechanism is used to concentrate urine in the kidneys by the nephrons of the human excretory system. The nephrons involved in the formation of concentrated urine extend all the way from the cortex of the kidney to the medulla and are accompanied by vasa recta.

Why is countercurrent exchange more efficient?

Counter Flow Heat Exchanger This distributes the heat more evenly across the heat exchanger and allows for maximum efficiency. In theory, the cold fluid can exit the heat exchanger at a higher temperature than the temperature of the hot fluid outlet, although in reality this is very difficult to achieve.

Why is counter current better?

One of the great advantages of counter-current flow is the possibility of extracting a higher proportion of the heat content of the heating fluid. It is important to note that the LMTD value for counter-current flow is much larger than for cocurrent flow at the same terminal temperature (see Figure 1.9).

What is the role of the counter current multiplier and exchanger in urine formation?

Why is countercurrent exchange more efficient than countercurrent exchange of gases in fishes?

The maximum amount of oxygen that the blood could pick up would be only half of the total amount of oxygen in the water. In contrast, countercurrent oxygen exchange allows the blood to pick up 90 percent of the oxygen in the water.

What is counter-current gas exchange?

Most gas exchange in the respiratory system structures in animals takes place in counter-current arrangement. In short, this means that the medium that delivers the oxygen (air or water) and the structures that the oxygen is delivered to are moving in directions opposite to one another.

What is the difference between countercurrent multiplication and countercurrent exchange?

The terms “countercurrent multiplication” and “countercurrent exchange” are not interchangeable. Countercurrent multiplication is something the tubule does to create the high interstitial osmolality, and a large osmolality gradient between the renal medulla and the renal cortex.

What are the advantages of counter current exchange?

The counter-current exchange system can maintain a nearly constant gradient between the two flows over their entire length of contact. With a sufficiently long length and a sufficiently low flow rate this can result in almost all of the property transferred.

Why is nearly complete transfer possible in systems implementing countercurrent exchange?

Nearly complete transfer in systems implementing countercurrent exchange, is only possible if the two flows are, in some sense, “equal”. For a maximum transfer of substance concentration, an equal flowrate of solvents and solutions is required.

What is cocurrent and countercurrent exchange mechanisms?

As the cocurrent and countercurrent exchange mechanisms diagram showed, a cocurrent exchange system has a variable gradient over the length of the exchanger. With equal flows in the two tubes, this method of exchange is only capable of moving half of the property from one flow to the other, no matter how long the exchanger is.