Dispersion in steady and oscillatory flows through a tube with reversible and irreversible wall reactions

Abstract

An asymptotic analysis is presented for the advection-diffusion transport of a chemical species in flow through a small-diameter tube, where the flow consists of steady and oscillatory components, and the species may undergo linear reversible (phase exchange or wall retention) and irreversible (decay or absorption) reactions at the tube wall. Both developed and transient concentrations are considered in the analysis; the former is governed by the Taylor dispersion model, while the latter is required in order to formulate proper initial data for the developed mean concentration. The various components of the effective dispersion coefficient, valid when the developed state is attained, are derived as functions of the Schmidt number, flow oscillation frequency, phase partitioning and kinetics of the two reactions. Being more general than those available in the literature, this effective dispersion coefficient incorporates the combined effects of wall retention and absorption on the otherwise classical Taylor dispersion mechanism. It is found that if the phase exchange reaction kinetics is strong enough, the dispersion coefficient is probably to be increased by orders of magnitude by changing the tube wall from being non-retentive to being just weakly retentive. © 2005 The Royal Society.