Integral Analysis of the Effects of Non-absorbable gases on the Heat Mass Transfer of Laminar Falling Film

The absorption process of water vapor in a liquid film is an important process in LiBr-Water absorption system. The composition of the gas phase, in which a non-absorbable gas is combined with the absorbate, influences the transport characteristics. In the present work, the absorption processes of water vapor into aqueous solutions of lithium bromide in the presence of non-absorbable gas are investigated. The continuity, momentum, energy and diffusion equations for the solution film and gas are formulated in integral forms and solved numerically. It is found that the mass transfer resistance in gas phase increases with the concentration of non-absorbable gas. However the primary resistance to mass transfer is in the liquid phase. As the concentration of non-absorbable gas in the absorbate increases, the interfacial temperature and concentration of absorbate in solution decrease, which results in the reduction of absorption rate. The reduction of mass transfer rate is found to be significant for the addition of a small amount of non-absorbable gas to the pure vapor, especially at the outlet of tube where the non-absorbable gas accumulates. At higher non-absorbable gas concentration, the decrease of absorption rate seems to be linear to the concentration of non-absorbable gas.