THE EXACT PENETRATION MODEL OF DIFFUSION IN MULTICOMPONENT IDEAL GAS MIXTURES. ANALYTICAL AND NUMERICAL SOLUTIONS

An exact analytical solution is derived for the penetration model of diffusion in multicomponent ideal gas mixtures at constant pressure and temperature. It takes the form of a matrizant solution to the continuity and Maxwell-Stefan equations transformed by introduction of a similarity variable, and includes as special cases the corresponding binary and linearized theory solutions

Direct numerical implementation of the analytical solution is computationally inefficient, but an alternative finite-difference algorithm is developed in which the transformed equations are solved by Euler's method with a simple shooting technique. Sample calculations are reported for two ternary diffusion problems

It is concluded on the basis of the theoretical and numerical results that the linearized theory predictions should provide an excellent approximation to the exact solution of the penetration model.