Mass transfer at plane surfaces

Many of the earlier studies of mass transfer involved measuring the rate of vaporisation of liquids by passing a turbulent air stream over a liquid surface. In addition, some investigations have been carried out in the absence of air flow, under what have been termed still air conditions. Most of these experiments have been carried out in some form of wind tunnel where the rate of flow of air and its temperature and humidity could be controlled and measured. In these experiments it was found to be important to keep the surface of the liquid level with the rim of the pan in order to avoid the generation of eddies at the leading edge. 

Hinchley and Himus(40) measured the rate of evaporation from heated rectangular pans fitted flush with the floor of a wind tunnel (0.46m wide by 0.23m high), and showed that the rate of vaporisation was proportional to the difference between the saturation vapour pressure of the water Ps and the partial pressure of water in the air Plv. The results for the mass rate of evaporation W were represented by an empirical equation of the form  

In these experiments, it might be anticipated that, with high concentrations of vapour in the air, the rate of evaporation would no longer be linearly related to the partial pressure difference because of the contribution of bulk flow to the mass transfer process (Section 10.2.3), although there is no evidence of this even at mole fractions of vapour at the surface as high as 0.5. Possibly the experimental measurements were nol sufficiently sensitive to detect this effect. 

MAISEL and SHERWOOD(46) also carried out experiments in a wind tunnel in which water was evaporated from a wet porous surface preceded by a dry surface of length Lq. Thus, a velocity boundary layer had become established in the air before it came into 

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