Advanced Thermo-Fluid Science – SEE 6011

6. Mass Transfer

Compiled:
Balewgize A. ZERU
Assistant Prof. of Mechanical Engineering, JiT, JU

Text book: Heat Transfer 10th Edition by J. P. Holman

Introduction to Mass Transfer
■ Mass transfer can result from several different phenomena:
 There is a mass transfer associated with convection in that
mass is transported from one place to another in the flow
system. This type of mass transfer occurs on a macroscopic
level and is usually treated in the subject of fluid mechanics.
 When a mixture of gases or liquids is contained such that there
exists a concentration gradient of one or more of the
constituents across the system, there will be a mass transfer on
a microscopic level as the result of diffusion from regions of
high concentration to regions of low concentration.
 In this chapter we are primarily concerned with some of the
simple relations that may be used to calculate mass diffusion
and their relation to heat transfer.
 Nevertheless, one must remember that the general subject of
mass transfer encompasses both mass diffusion on a molecular
scale and the bulk mass transport that may result from a
convection process.

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Fick’s Law of Diffusion
■Consider the system shown in the figure. A thin partition separates
the two gases A and B.
 When the partition is removed, the two gases diffuse through each
other until equilibrium is established and the concentration of the
gases is uniform throughout the box.
 The diffusion rate is given by Fick’s law of diffusion, which states
that the mass flux of a constituent per unit area is proportional to
the concentration gradient.

 Similar expressions could also be written for the diffusion of

constituent A in either the y or z direction.

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 … Mass Transfer
The physical mechanism of diffusion:
 Consider the imaginary plane shown by the dashed line in
Figure 11-2. The concentration of component A is greater on
the left side of this plane than on the right side.
 The fact that the molecules collide with each other
influences the diffusion process strongly.
 The collision between like molecules does not appreciably
alter the basic molecular movement, because the two
molecules are identical and it does not make any difference
whether one or the other of the two molecules crosses a
certain plane.
 The collision of two unlike molecules, say, molecules A and
B, might result in molecule B crossing some particular plane
instead of molecule A.
 The molecules would, in general, have different masses;
thus the mass transfer would be influenced by the collision.
 By using the kinetic theory of gases it is possible to predict
analytically the diffusion rates for some systems by taking
into account the collision mechanism and molecular weights
of the constituent gases.

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 … Mass Transfer

■ Similarity,
 the heat-conduction equation describes the transport of energy,
 the viscous-shear equation describes the transport of momentum across
fluid layers, and
 the diffusion law describes the transport of mass.

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 … Mass Transfer
Diffusion in Gases
■ In gases the diffusion rates are clearly dependent on the
molecular speed, and consequently we should expect a
dependence of the diffusion coefficient on temperature since the
temperature indicates the average molecular speed.
■ Gilliland has proposed a semi empirical equation for the
diffusion coefficient in gases:

Where;
- D is in m2/s,
- T is in degrees Kelvin,
- p is the total system pressure [Pa]
- VA and VB are the molecular
■ Equation (11-2) offers a convenient expression for calculating volumes of constituents A and B as
the diffusion coefficient for various compounds and mixtures, calculated from the atomic
but it should not be used as a substitute for experimental values volumes in Table 11-1;
of the diffusion coefficient when they are available for a - MA and MB are the molecular
particular system. weights of constituents A and B.

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 The diffusion process is occurring in two ways at the same time; that is, gas A is
diffusing into gas B at the same time that gas B is diffusing into gas A. We thus
could refer to the diffusion coefficient for either of these processes.

For gases at low pressures or at a state where the ideal-gas equation of state
applies, Fick’s law may be expressed in terms of partial pressures:
 The density ρ represents the mass concentration to be used in Fick’s law.
 The gas constant R for a particular gas may be expressed in terms of the
universal gas constant R0 and the molecular weight of the gas. i.e

 For ideal gas, Fick’s law of diffusion for component A into component B could be
written if isothermal diffusion is considered i.e. T = constant

 Similarly, the diffusion of component B into component A

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 Equi-molal Diffusion
 Now consider a physical situation called equi-molal counter-diffusion,
as indicated in the figure.
 NA and NB represent the steady-state molal diffusion rates of components
A and B respectively.

 In this steady-state situation each molecule of A is replaced by a molecule

of B, and vice versa. The molal diffusion rates are given by

 The total pressure of the system remains constant at steady state, so that
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Since each molecule of A is replacing a molecule of B, we may set the molal
diffusion rates equal:

Or

where Equation (11-7) has been used to express the pressure gradient of component B.

 We thus find

 The calculation of D may be made with Equation (11-2).

We may integrate Equation (11-5) to obtain the mass flux of component A as

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Diffusion of water vapor into air:
 Consider the isothermal evaporation of water from a surface and the subsequent
diffusion through a stagnant air layer, as shown in the figure.
 The free surface of the water is exposed to air in the tank, as shown.
 Assumptions:
 The system is isothermal and that the total pressure remains constant.
 The system is in steady state. This requires that there be a slight air movement over
the top of the tank to remove the water vapor that diffuses to that point. Whatever air
movement may be necessary to accomplish this, it is assumed that it does not create
turbulence or otherwise alter the concentration profiles in the air in the tank.
 Both the air and water vapor behave as ideal gases.

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 As the water evaporates, it will diffuse upward through the air, and at steady state this
upward movement must be balanced by a downward diffusion of air so that the
concentration at any x position will remain constant.
 But at the surface of the water there can be no net mass movement of air downward.
 Consequently, there must be a bulk mass movement upward with a velocity just large
enough to balance the diffusion of air downward. This bulk mass movement then produces
an additional mass flux of water vapor upward.
 The diffusion of air downward is given by

 Where A denotes the cross-sectional area of the tank.

 This must be balanced by the bulk mass transfer upward so that

 Where v is the bulk mass velocity upward.

 Combining Equations (11-10) and (11-11), we find

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 The mass diffusion of water vapor upward is:

 And the bulk transport of water vapor is:

 The total mass transport is the sum of those given in Equations (11-13) and (11-14).
Adding these quantities and making use of Equation (11-12) gives

 The partial pressure of the water vapor may be related to the partial pressure of the air by
making use of Dalton’s law,

 Since the total pressure

is constant.

 The total mass flow of water vapor then becomes:

 Called Stefan’s law. It may be integrated to give:

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Diffusion in Liquids and Solids
 Fick’s law of diffusion is also used for problems involving liquid and solid
diffusion, and the main difficulty is one of determining the value of the diffusion
coefficient for the particular liquid or solid.
 Unfortunately, only approximate theories are available for
 Predicting diffusion coefficients in these systems.
• [Bird, Stewart, and Lightfoot] discuss the calculation of diffusion in liquids, and
• [Jost] gives a discussion of the various theories that have been employed to
predict values of the diffusion coefficient
 Diffusion in solids is complex because of the strong influence of the molecular
force fields on the process.
 For these systems Fick’s law is often used, along with an experimentally
determined diffusion coefficient, although there is some indication that this
relation may not adequately describe the physical processes.
 The numerical value of the diffusion coefficient for liquids and solids is much
smaller than for gases, primarily because of
 the larger molecular force fields,
 the increased number of collisions, and
 the consequent reduction in the freedom of movement of the molecules.
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 THE MASS-TRANSFER COEFFICIENT, K
 mass-transfer coefficient may be defined in a manner similar to that used for
defining the heat-transfer coefficient. Thus

 We recognize as before that the concentrations are, in fact, mass densities of

component A in the mixture.
 If one considers a steady-state diffusion across a layer of thickness Δx, diffusion
coefficient (D) and mass transfer coefficient (K) can be related as

 For the water-vaporization process described by Equation (11-16), taking concentration

difference as density difference for an ideal gas, the mass-transfer coefficient K for this
situation could be written:

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 The phenomenological laws governing energy, mass, and momentum transfer in
convection heat transfer analysis are also similarly to be used in convective mass
transfer.
 It has be seen that for a laminar boundary layer
 the ratio ν/α is the Prandtl number, Pr., an important parameter in all
convection heat transfer problems.

 Analogically for mass transfer - If we considered a laminar boundary layer on a

flat plate in which diffusion was occurring as a result of some mass-transfer
condition at the surface, we could derive an equation for the concentration of a
particular component in the boundary layer as:

 where CA is the concentration of the component that is diffusing through the boundary
layer. Note the similarity between Equation (11-22) and Equations (11-20) and (11-21).
 The concentration and velocity profiles will have the same shape when ν=D or ν/D=1.
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 The dimensionless ratio ν/D is called the Schmidt number, Sc,

 Schmidt number is important in problems where both convection and mass transfer
are important.
 i.e. the Schmidt number plays a role similar to that of the Prandtl number in
convection heat-transfer problems.

 In convection heat-transfer problems we write for the functional dependence of the

heat-transfer coefficient for flow over a flat plate is:

 In convection mass-transfer problems we should write the functional relation as non

dimensional number Kx/D called the Sherwood number, Sh :

 The temperature and concentration profiles will be similar when α=D or α/D=1, and the
ratio α/D is called the Lewis number, Le

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The similarities between the governing equations for heat, mass, and momentum transfer
suggest that empirical correlations for the mass-transfer coefficient would be similar to
those for the heat-transfer coefficient.
Some of the empirical relations for mass-transfer coefficients by Gilliland [4] are presented
here.

for the vaporization of liquids into air inside circular columns where the liquid wets the
surface and the air is forced through the column.

 Equation (11-25) is valid for 2000<Red<35,000 and 0.6<Sc<2.5 and flow in smooth
tubes.
 Is similar with the Dittus-Boelter equation (6-4).

 The grouping of terms Kx/D or Kd/D is called the Sherwood number

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For Rough tubes, the Reynolds analogy for pipe flow may be extended to mass-transfer
problems to express the mass-transfer coefficient in terms of the friction factor,
The analogy is written

This may be compared with the analogy for heat transfer for rough tubes
[Equation (6-12)]:

For flow over smooth flat plates, the Reynolds analogy for mass transfer becomes
(analogous to Equations (5-55) and (5-81))
Laminar:

Turbulent:

When both heat and mass transfer are occurring simultaneously, the mass- and heat-transfer
coefficients may be related by dividing Equation (11-28) by Equation (11-27):

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In addition to using mass density or mass concentration as the driving potential
for mass flow (diffusion) and definition of the mass-transfer coefficient, it is
also possible to employ molar density and mole fractions as driving forces.
Webb [14] suggests a standardized nomenclature applicable to the different
quantities.

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Fig. Problem
illustration

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Fig. Problem
illustration

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 Evaporation Processes in the Atmosphere
In the atmosphere, the continuous evaporation and condensation of water from the
soil, oceans, and lakes influences every form of life and provides many of the day-
to-day varieties of climate that govern the environment on earth.
These processes are very complicated because in practice they are governed by
substantial atmospheric convection currents that are difficult to describe
analytically.

 Let us first consider the diffusion of water vapor

from a horizontal surface into quiescent air as
indicated in the figure.
- At the surface, the partial pressure of the vapor
is ps.
- The vapor pressure steadily drops with a rise in
elevation z to the “free atmosphere” value of
p∞.

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The molecular diffusion of the water vapor may be written in the form of Equation (11-
13) as

where A is the surface area under consideration.

In hydrologic applications, it is convenient to express this relation in terms of the local
atmospheric density and pressure. The total pressure may be expressed as

where ρ and M are the density and molecular weight of the moist air,
respectively.
⁃ Because the molar concentration of water vapor is so small in atmospheric
applications, the molecular weight of the moist air is essentially that of dry air, and
Equations (11-32) and (11-33) can be combined to give

Then,

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 Integrating with appropriate boundary conditions

Rate of evaporation per unit area becomes:

Evaporation processes in the atmosphere are much more complicated than

indicated by the simple form of Equation (11-35) for two reasons:
1. The actual diffusion process involves substantial turbulent eddy motion so that
the diffusion coefficient Dw may vary significantly with the height z.
2. The air is seldom quiescent and wind currents contribute substantially to the
evaporation rate.

The solution to a complicated problem of this sort is frequently obtained by

appealing to carefully controlled measurements in search of an empirical
relationship to predict evaporation rates like the convection heat transfer
problems.

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Measuring Evaporating rate:
Consider the following problem, a “standard
pan” is used as shown in Figure 11-6.
The mean wind movement is measured 6 inches
above the pan rim, and
The water-evaporation rates are measured with
the pan placed on the ground (land pan) or in a
body of water (floating pan).
For the land pan and with a convectively stable
atmosphere, the evaporation rate has been
correlated experimentally [Kohler et al] as:

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Heat transfer to the pan influences the evaporation rate differently for the
ground or water experiments.
To convert the pan measurements to those for a natural surface, Equation
(11-36) is multiplied by a pan coefficient that is 0.7 for the land pan and
0.8 for the floating pan.
If the atmosphere is not convectively stable, vertical density gradients can
cause substantial deviations from Equation (11-36). These problems are
discussed in References 10 to 13.

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Questions for Exercise
■ Review questions
■ 11.1, 11.5, 11.11, 11.17, 11.23

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