Numerical study of heat and mass transfer during evaporation of a thin liquid film

Abstract

A numerical study of mixed convection heat and mass transfer with film evaporation in a vertical channel is developed. The emphasis is focused on the effects of vaporization of three different liquid films having widely different properties, along the isothermal and wetted walls on the heat and mass transfer rates in the channel. The induced laminar downward flow is a mixture of blowing dry air and vapour of water, methanol or acetone, assumed as ideal gases. A two-dimensional steady state and elliptical flow model, connected with variable thermo-physical properties, is used and the phase change problem is based on thin liquid film assumptions. The governing equations of the model are solved by a finite volume method and the velocity-pressure fields are linked by SIMPLE algorithm. The numerical results, including the velocity, temperature and concentration profiles, as well as axial variations of Nusselt numbers, Sherwood number and dimensionless film evaporation rate are presented for two values of inlet temperature and Reynolds number. It was found that lower the inlet temperature and Re, the higher the induced flows cooling with respect of most volatile film. The better mass transfer rates related with film evaporation are found for a system with low mass diffusion coefficient.