The integral mean diffusivity for particle-gas mass transfer calculations under thermal plasma conditions

Abstract

A new integral mean diffusivity is proposed for the calculation of the mass transfer rate around a small particle immersed in a thermal plasma gas. Analogous to the integral mean thermal conductivity widely used for the corresponding heat transfer calculations, the integral mean diffusivity greatly facilitates the use of the convenient isothermal correlation, Sh=2.0, for the gas-particle mass transfer calculations. The calculation method accounts for both ordinary molecular diffusion and thermal diffusion. The latter has been found to play a significant role under thermal plasma conditions. The use of the integral mean diffusivity is illustrated with an example calculation on an Ar-He plasma system.