Mass transfer between a turbulent fluid and a solid boundary: Linear theory

Abstract

AbstractA linear form of the mass balance equation is used to determine how turbulent transport of mass to a solid wall is related to the fluctuating velocity field. It is found that at high Schmidt numbers the Reynolds transport is controlled by fluctuations of much lower frequency than the most energetic velocity fluctuations. The characteristic of the velocity field that emerges as being most important is the small frequency limiting value of the spectral function of the velocity fluctuations normal to the wall. However, the linear theory that is explored does not predict the correct dependency of the average and the mean‐squared deviation of the mass transfer coefficient on Schmidt number. A nonlinear analysis must be performed to examine fully the mechanism of turbulent mass transfer to a solid surface.