Mean free path, liquid

In molecular distillation, the permanent gas pressure is so low (less than 0 001 mm. of mercury) that it has very little influence upon the speed of the distillation. The distillation velocity at such low pressures is determined by the speed at which the vapour from the liquid being distilled can flow through the enclosed space connecting the still and condenser under the driving force of its own saturation pressure. If the distance from the surface of the evaporating liquid to the condenser is less than (or of the order of) the mean free path of a molecule of distillate vapour in the residual gas at the same density and pressure, most of the molecules which leave the surface will not return. The mean free path of air at various pressures is as follows —... 

This is an indication of the collective nature of the effect. Although collisions between hard spheres are instantaneous the model itself is not binary. Very careful analysis of the free-path distribution has been undertaken in an excellent old work [74], It showed quite definite although small deviations from Poissonian statistics not only in solids, but also in a liquid hard-sphere system. The mean free-path X is used as a scaling length to make a dimensionless free-path distribution, Xp, as a function of a free-path length r/X. In the zero-density limit this is an ideal exponential function (Ap)o- In a one-dimensional system this is an exact result, i.e., Xp/(Xp)0 = 1 at any density. In two dimensions the dense-fluid scaled free-path distributions agree quite well with each other, but not so well with the zero-density scaled distribution, which is represented by a horizontal line (Fig. 1.21(a)). The maximum deviation is about... 

Ordinary or bulk diffusion is primarily responsible for molecular transport when the mean free path of a molecule is small compared with the diameter of the pore. At 1 atm the mean free path of typical gaseous species is of the order of 10 5 cm or 103 A. In pores larger than 1CT4 cm the mean free path is much smaller than the pore dimension, and collisions with other gas phase molecules will occur much more often than collisions with the pore walls. Under these circumstances the effective diffusivity will be independent of the pore diameter and, within a given catalyst pore, ordinary bulk diffusion coefficients may be used in Fick s first law to evaluate the rate of mass transfer and the concentration profile in the pore. In industrial practice there are three general classes of reaction conditions for which the bulk value of the diffusion coefficient is appropriate. For all catalysts these include liquid phase reactions... 

In high-mobility liquids, the quasi-free electron is often visualized as having an effective mass m different fron the usual electron mass m. It arises due to multiple scattering of the electron while the mean free path remains long. The ratio of mean acceleration to an external force can be defined as the inverse effective mass. Often, the effective mass is equated to the electron mass m when its value is unknown and difficult to determine. In LRGs values of mVm 0.3 to 0.5 have been estimated (Asaf and Steinberger,1974). Ascarelli (1986) uses mVm = 0.27 in LXe and a density-dependent value in LAr. 

In subcooled impact, the initial droplet temperature is lower than the saturated temperature of the liquid of the droplet, thus the transient heat transfer inside the droplet needs to be considered. Since the thickness of the vapor layer may be comparable with the mean free path of the gas molecules in the subcooled impact, the kinetic slip treatment of the boundary condition needs to be applied at the liquid-vapor and vapor-solid interface to modify the continuum system. 

For a molecule at RTP this is of the order of a few hundred molecular diameters. In our ideal gas there is a distribution of velocities of the molecules about a mean value c. The mean free path defines a length scale in gases. As the density of the gas is increased and the mean free path approaches the molecular dimensions, a short-range molecular order develops and the material condenses to a liquid. The diffusional length scale is now much shorter range as a molecule encounters its... 

A, Mean free path of ions, meters Am Mean free path of electrons, ions, or molecules, meters a Surface tension of liquid or surface energy of solid, N/meter or J/ meter2... 

A good example of translational fractionation is one-way diffusion through an orifice that is smaller than the mean-free path of the gas. Related, but somewhat more complex velocity-dependent fractionations occur during diffusion through a host gas, liquid, or solid. In these fractionations the isotopic masses in the translational fractionation factor are often replaced by some kind of effective reduced mass. For instance, in diffusion of a trace gas JiR through a medium, Y, consisting of molecules with mass ttiy. 

Recent times have seen much discussion of the choice of hydrodynamic boundary conditions that can be employed in a description of the solid-liquid interface. For some time, the no-slip approximation was deemed acceptable and has constituted something of a dogma in many fields concerned with fluid mechanics. This assumption is based on observations made at a macroscopic level, where the mean free path of the hquid being considered is much smaller... 

When considering boundary conditions, a useful dimensionless hydrodynamic number is the Knudsen number, Kn = X/L, the ratio of the mean free path length to the characteristic dimension of the flow. In the case of a small Knudsen number, continuum mechanics will apply, and the no-slip boundary condition assumption is valid. In this formulation of classical fluid dynamics, the fluid velocity vanishes at the wall, so fluid particles directly adjacent to the wall are stationary, with respect to the wall. This also ensures that there is a continuity of stress across the boundary (i.e., the stress at the lower surface—the wall—is equal to the stress in the surface-adjacent liquid). Although this is an approximation, it is valid in many cases, and greatly simplifies the solution of the equations of motion. Additionally, it eliminates the need to include an extra parameter, which must be determined on a theoretical or experimental basis. 

However, in the case of large Kn, the no-slip approximation cannot be applied. This implies that the mean free path of the liquid is on the same length scale as the dimension of the system itself. In such a case, stress and displacement are discontinuous at the interface, so an additional parameter is required to characterize the boundary condition. A simple technique to model this is the one-dimensional slip length, which is the extrapolation length into the wall required to recover the no-slip condition, as shown in Fig. 1. If we consider... 

The other approach to liquid-state theory is to treat liquids as dense gases typical of high pressures, except that they have much higher densities and lower compressibility. In the van der Waals equation format, the value of (V - b)/V representing the free volume would be of the order of 10%. The mean free path of free flight between collisions becomes much shorter, and is comparable to the molecular diameters. 

Model concept Gas Is pourable (fluid) and flows In a way similar to a liquid. The continuum theory and the summarization of the gas laws which follows are based on experience and can explain all the processes in gases near atmospheric pressure. Only after it became possible using ever better vacuum pumps to dilute the air to the extent that the mean free path rose far beyond the dimensions of the vessel were more far-reaching assumptions necessary these culminated in the kinetic gas theory. The kinetic gas theory applies throughout the entire pressure range the continuum theory represents the (historically older) special case in the gas laws where atmospheric conditions prevail. 

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