Role of concentration level of the nondiffusing species in turbulent gas phase mass transfer at ordinary mass transfer rates

Abstract

AbstractNumerical solutions to the diffusion‐convection equations are obtained with a digital computer to establish the role of concentration level of the nondiffusing species in nonequivolume diffusion in fully developed turbulent flow of gases in pipes. Results indicate that under ordinary mass transfer rates for a system at constant Schmidt and Reynolds numbers product of the gas‐phase mass transfer coefficient and the log mean partial pressure of the nondiffusing gas is nearly constant both in the mass transfer entry region and in the fully developed region. These results are compared with the experimental data on vaporization and absorption processes.We show that the effect of the mass transfer section length on the rate of turbulent mass transfer is quite significant. Furthermore, the results of the diffusion—convection analysis are in better agreement with experimental data for sections of finite length than results calculated from the momentum‐mass transfer analogy. The two methods agree in the limit for tubes of infinite length.