A NUMERICAL STUDY OF THE NONABSORBABLE EFFECTS ON THE FALLING LIQUID-FILM ABSORPTION

A numerical study for the simultaneous heat and mass transfer in a falling liquid film absorption process with the presence of non-absorbable gases is presented. Water vapor mixed with air as the non-absorbables being absorbed into a falling smooth aqueous lithium chloride film flow was chosen as the model problem for the study. The finite difference numerical calculation was proceeded by marching downward from the top end, owing to the parabolic type energy and concentration equations for both liquid and gas phases. The results indicate that the local non-absorbable gas concentration is much higher at the gas-liquid interface than that in the ambient, hence the local vapor pressure is lowered there such that the absorption driving potential of the vapor pressure difference is reduced. The resulting reduction of the absorption rate due to the presence of the non-absorbables suggests that its effect must be carefully considered in the application of absorption heat pump design. The present study can provide some useful information for this purpose.