Mass and heat transfer during water evaporation in laminar flow inside a rectangular channel — validity of heat and mass transfer analogy

Abstract

A detailed numerical analysis concerning the mechanism of heat and mass transfer during water evaporation in a two-dimensional steady laminar flow of dry air or air–vapor mixture in a horizontal channel is studied. The gas is considered as absorbing, emitting and nonscattering medium with variable thermophysical properties. The results show the effect of different state variables on the coefficients of heat and mass transfer and the domain where the analogy between the heat and mass transfer is valid. They also show the effect of the thermal radiation on the ratio between Sherwood and Nusselt numbers. The comparison between the present results and those obtained in previous published studies [32–34] features to a satisfactory agreement.