Fouling of nanofiltration (NF) membranes by colloidal matter is a commonly encountered phenomenon, adversely influencing the permeate quality and membrane life. In this work, a transient electrokinetic model has been developed to predict the permeate flux and observed rejection of NF membranes in presence of colloidal particles. The cake layer is considered as a swarm of non-interacting, incompressible, spherical, charged particles and the structure is represented using the cell model approach. In the cell model a single particle and a representative volume of the fluid enclosing that particle is considered. The hydrodynamic drag exerted by the stationary colloidal cake layer is obtained by the Stokes-Einstein law and combined with Kuwabara cell model to account for the effect of neighboring particles. The transport of solvent around the charged particles distorts the ionic distribution causing the development of streaming potential and electroosmotic back flow. The model provides valuable insight into application of this phenomenon in colloidal fouling of membranes, in light of the classical Levine-Neale cell model of electrophoresis. This model is then coupled with film theory to appraise the permeate flux decline and salt rejection during the filtration processes. To validate the model, cross flow NF experiment was conducted with silica particles and sodium chloride solution over a wide range of operating conditions. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.