CONVECTIVE DIFFUSION AND ADSORPTION IN A SWARM OF SPHEROIDAL PARTICLES

The problem of mass transfer from a Newtonian fluid to a swarm of sphe roidal adsorbers under creeping flow conditions is considered using th e spheroid-in-cell model to represent the swarm. The flow field within the fluid envelope for the Kuwabara type of boundary conditions is ob tained from the analytical solution of Dassios et al. (1994). The comp lete convective diffusion equation is used to describe mass transport within the envelope so that moderate and strong diffusional terms can be taken into account. A new set of boundary conditions is used that r espects mass flux and concentration continuity across the outer surfac e of the cell and maximizes the applicability of the spheroid-in-cell model in the convection-to-diffusion transition regime. The resulting elliptic problem in two dimensions is solved numerically Results for t he upstream and downstream concentration profiles reveal that tangenti al diffusion is very significant and should not be neglected for moder ate and low Peclet number values. Also, the classical Levich-type of f ormulation, which is theoretically valid for very weak diffusional ter ms only, can in practice be modified to predict with fair accuracy the overall Sherwood number and the adsorption efficiency of prolate and oblate spheroids-in-cell even in moderate Peclet number cases.