MASS TRANSFER THROUGH PERMEABLE WALLS: A NEW INTEGRAL EQUATION APPROACH FOR CYLINDRICAL TUBES WITH LAMINAR FLOW

Mass transfer through cylindrical semipermeable walls is analyzed. The solution is obtained in terms of integral equations. Despite the existence of a non-homogeneous boundary condition on the semipermeable wall, the solution thus obtained is particularly advantageous since the associated eigenvalue problem is independent of the Sherwood number. This parameter takes into account the main conductances at the tube wall.

The approach is applied to the case of mass transfer from the interior of a capillary tube with semipermeable walls to an external fluid. The flow in the tube is laminar, and the external flow is assumed turbulent.

The mathematical methodology employed provides a framework to develop numerical schemes of fast and sure convergence.