Simulation of the enhancement of Dean flow on the liquid–liquid extraction in membrane contactors

•The gap-filling simulation of liquid–liquid extraction in the curved membrane contactors is proposed to investigate the effect of Dean vortices.•Under the optimal experimental conditions, the enhancement factor E is up to 1.8.•Mass transfer enhancement is not regarded as energy-efficient only when Dean number is smaller than 8.•The 90-degree bend gives the best mass transfer performance but suffering from the most severe pressure drop.•For systems with higher membrane resistance: the enhancement provide by Dean flow was lower.