Analysis of the absorption process on a horizontal tube using Navier-Stokes equations with surface-tension effects

Abstract

A Navier-Stokes procedure has been developed to investigate the absorption phenomena about the free-falling film flow on a horizontal tube. The fully elliptic equations of momentum, temperature and concentration are solved by using the SIMPLER algorithm, which incorporates the QUICK scheme and the incomplete Cholesky conjugate gradient method for accuracy and efficiency. Taking account of the surface-tension effects, the free-surface location is carefully traced by the MAC method in a time-accurate manner. The details of the flow and heat/mass transfer phenomena, such as the free-surface location, the streamlines, the formation of recirculating region and the rate of absorption, are seen to be well captured. The results are presented for various flow rates; the surface tension is found to play an important role in dictating the flow field especially when the flow rate is low. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.