The problem of solid dissolution in films of non-Newtonian pseudoplastic liquids falling over flat, cylindrical, spherical and conical surfaces is studied theoretically. The resulting Sturm-Liouville problem is solved by series expansion on a digital computer. Numerical results for the eigenvalues, eigenfunctions, expansion coefficients and average expansion coefficients are reported for power-lawliquids. Semi-quantitative considerations are presented for considering the influence of fluid-stretching in the case of viscoelastic liquids.
IntroductionAlthough a considerable interest has been shown in recent years in the study of momentumand heat transfer characteristics of non-Newtonianfluids, relatively little work has been done so far as the problems of mass transfer are concerned. In numerousindustrial situations, such as diffusion-controlled polymerisation reactions, several biological and physiological processes as well as in manyindustrial waste disposal systems, a knowledge of mass transfer in non-Newtonian media may be extremely important.Oneof the important factors influencing the rates of mass transfer is the molecular diffusion coefficient of the solute in the solvent. There is a good deal of information in the literature on the diffusion coefficients of solutes in a variety of non-Newtonian media such as polymer solutions, suspensions etc. (see e.g. 1, 2, 9, 13). It has been conclusively proved that the conventional formulae for computing the diffusion coefficients in Newtonianmedia give erroneous results whenused for non-Newtonian media. It is found that in spite of the enormousdifferences in the viscosities of the solvents and the polymer solutions, the order of magnitude of the diffusion coefficients in the polymer solutions is practically the same as that in the solvent. Since most non-Newtonian liquids are highly viscous in character, the conventional static techniques for the determination of diffusion coefficients may be unsuitable. For instance, Hansford and Litt11} attempted to measure the diffusivity of benzoic acid in polymer solutions by using diaphragm cell technique, but the results were not reliable. Further, the nonNewtonian behaviour of the material will be exhibited only under flow conditions. Hence it is important to devise techniques where measurementsof mass transfer rates in flowing non-Newtonian liquids under welldefined flow conditions can be made. This will enable us to calculate the value of the diffusion coefficient in the non-zero shear rate region. This will also enable us to examine the effect on the diffusion coefficient, if any, of the changes in the molecular configurations which occur in a flowing non-Newtonian liquid. One such technique is the study of the rate of dissolution of solids in flowing films of non-Newtonian liquids. Usually flat and inclined slabs of the solids to be dissolved have been used for such a purpose2).Howeverthe possibility of using other shapes has not been investigated so far.In this work, we have studied theoretically the problem of solid dis...