Diffusivities eddy

A closer look at the Lewis relation requires an examination of the heat- and mass-transfer mechanisms active in the entire path from the hquid—vapor interface into the bulk of the vapor phase. Such an examination yields the conclusion that, in order for the Lewis relation to hold, eddy diffusivities for heat- and mass-transfer must be equal, as must the thermal and mass diffusivities themselves. This equahty may be expected for simple monatomic and diatomic gases and vapors. Air having small concentrations of water vapor fits these criteria closely. 

Eddy diffusion as a transport mechanism dominates turbulent flow at a planar electrode ia a duct. Close to the electrode, however, transport is by diffusion across a laminar sublayer. Because this sublayer is much thinner than the layer under laminar flow, higher mass-transfer rates under turbulent conditions result. Assuming an essentially constant reactant concentration, the limiting current under turbulent flow is expected to be iadependent of distance ia the direction of electrolyte flow. 

I0-38Z ) is solved to give the temperature distribution from which the heat-transfer coefficient may be determined. The major difficulties in solving Eq. (5-38Z ) are in accurately defining the thickness of the various flow layers (laminar sublayer and buffer layer) and in obtaining a suitable relationship for prediction of the eddy diffusivities. For assistance in predicting eddy diffusivities, see Reichardt (NACA Tech. Memo 1408, 1957) and Strunk and Chao [Am. ln.st. Chem. Eng. J., 10, 269(1964)]. 

An alternative approach is presented in the AlChE Bubble-Ti ay Design Manual ana is based on an eddy-diffusion model. Accordingto this model,... 

The value of 0/ is calculated from Eq. (14-142). The term Dg is an eddy-diffusion coefficient that is obtained from experimental measurements. For sieve plates, Barker and Self [Chem. E/ig. Sci., 17,, 541 (1962)] obtained the Following correlation ... 

The difficulty with Eq, (26-58) is that it is impossible to determine the velocity at every point, since an adequate turbulence model does not currently exist, The solution is to rewrite the concentration and velocity in terms of an average and stochastic quantity C = (C) -t- C Uj = (uj) + Uj, where the brackets denote the average value and the prime denotes the stochastic, or deviation variable. It is also helpful to define an eddy diffusivity Kj (with units of area/time) as... 

The problem with Eq, (26-60) is that the eddy diffusivity changes with position, time, wind velocity, and prevailing atmospheric conditions, to name a few, and must be specified prior to a solution to the equation, This approach, while important theoretically, does not provide a practical framework for the solution of vapor dispersion problems,... 

An important mixing operation involves bringing different molecular species together to obtain a chemical reaction. The components may be miscible liquids, immiscible liquids, solid particles and a liquid, a gas and a liquid, a gas and solid particles, or two gases. In some cases, temperature differences exist between an equipment surface and the bulk fluid, or between the suspended particles and the continuous phase fluid. The same mechanisms that enhance mass transfer by reducing the film thickness are used to promote heat transfer by increasing the temperature gradient in the film. These mechanisms are bulk flow, eddy diffusion, and molecular diffusion. The performance of equipment in which heat transfer occurs is expressed in terms of forced convective heat transfer coefficients. 

Eddy diffusion The interchange of liquids, gases, or vapors that takes place in an eddy current. 

Mechanical diffusion Eddy diffusion caused by mechanically-produced turbulence. 

Marchello and Toor (M2) proposed a mixing model for transfer near a boundary which assumes that localized mixing occurs rather than gross displacement of the fluid elements. This model can be said to be a modified penetration-type model. Kishinevsky (K6-K8) assumed a surface-renewal mechanism with eddy diffusion rather than molecular diffusion controlling the transfer at the interface. 

The term mass transfer is used to denote the transference of a component in a mixture from a region where its concentration is high to a region where the concentration is lower. Mass transfer process can take place in a gas or vapour or in a liquid, and it can result from the random velocities of the molecules (molecular diffusion) or from the circulating or eddy currents present in a turbulent fluid (eddy diffusion). 

Whereas D is a physical property of the system and a function only of its composition, pressure and temperature, Ed, which is known as the eddy diffusivity, is dependent on the flow pattern and varies with position. The estimation of Ep presents some difficulty, and this problem is considered in Chapter 12. 

In addition to momentum, both heat and mass can be transferred either by molecular diffusion alone or by molecular diffusion combined with eddy diffusion. Because the effects of eddy diffusion are generally far greater than those of the molecular diffusion, the main resistance to transfer will lie in the regions where only molecular diffusion is occurring. Thus the main resistance to the flow of heat or mass to a surface lies within the laminar sub-layer. It is shown in Chapter 11 that the thickness of the laminar sub-layer is almost inversely proportional to the Reynolds number for fully developed turbulent flow in a pipe. Thus the heat and mass transfer coefficients are much higher at high Reynolds numbers. 

On a similar basis an eddy diffusivity for mass transfer Er> can be defined for systems in which concentration gradients exist as ... 

The coefficient < turb introduced in Equation (41) (dimension L /T) is called the turbulent, or eddy diffusivity. In the general case the eddy diffusivity is given separate values for the three spatial dimensions. It must be remembered that the eddy diffusivities are not constants in any real sense (like the molecular diffusivities) and that their numerical values are very uncertain. The assumption underlying Equation (41) is therefore open to question. 

Order-of-magnitude values for the vertical eddy diffusivity in the atmosphere and the ocean are shown in Fig. 4-15. The values for the viscous layers represent molecular diffusivities of a typical air molecule like N2. 

Development in recent years of fast-response instruments able to measure rapid fluctuations of the wind velocity (V ) and of fhe tracer concentration (c ), has made it possible to calculate the turbulent flux directly from the correlation expression in Equation (41), without having to resort to uncertain assumptions about eddy diffusivities. For example, Grelle and Lindroth (1996) used this eddy-correlation technique to calculate the vertical flux of CO2 above a foresf canopy in Sweden. Since the mean vertical velocity w) has to vanish above such a flat surface, the only contribution to the vertical flux of CO2 comes from the eddy-correlation term c w ). In order to capture the contributions from all important eddies, both the anemometer and the CO2 instrument must be able to resolve fluctuations on time scales down to about 0.1 s. 

The inadequacy of the two-box model of the ocean led to the box-diffusion model (Oeschger et al, 1975). Instead of simulating the role of the deep sea with a well-mixed reservoir in exchange with the surface layer by first-order exchange processes, the transfer into the deep sea is maintained by vertical eddy diffusion. In... 

The deep ocean (6) is the portion of the water column from 300 m to 3300 m and is the largest ocean reservoir of dissolved P. However, since the deep ocean is devoid of light, this P is not significantly incorporated into ocean biota. Mostly, it is stored in the deep waters until it is eventually transported back into the photic zone via upwelling or eddy diffusive mixing. 

Surface renewal theory envisions a continuous exchange of material between the bulk fluid and the interface. Eddy diffusion brings material of uniform composition ai to the interface and exposes it to the gas phase for a period of time t. The exposed fluid is then replaced with fresh fluid. Diffusion during the exposure... 

In the absence of diffusion, all hydrodynamic models show infinite variances. This is a consequence of the zero-slip condition of hydrodynamics that forces Vz = 0 at the walls of a vessel. In real systems, molecular diffusion will ultimately remove molecules from the stagnant regions near walls. For real systems, W t) will asymptotically approach an exponential distribution and will have finite moments of all orders. However, molecular diffusivities are low for liquids, and may be large indeed. This fact suggests the general inappropriateness of using to characterize the residence time distribution in a laminar flow system. Turbulent flow is less of a problem due to eddy diffusion that typically results in an exponentially decreasing tail at fairly low multiples of the mean residence time. 

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