Characterization of Rayleigh Convection in Interfacial Mass Transfer by Lattice Boltzmann Simulation and Experimental Verification

Concentration gradient induced Rayleigh convection can influence effectively interfacial mass transfer processes, but the convection phenomena are known as mesoscopic and complex. In order to investigate this phenomenon, a two-equation Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) is proposed to simulate the velocity and the concentration distributions of Rayleigh convection generated in the CO2 absorption into ethanol liquid. The simulated results on velocity distributions are experimentally verified by PIV (particle image velocimetry technique) measurements. In order to simplify the analysis, the convection in the simulation as well as in the experiment, the Rayleigh convection was manipulated into a single down flow pattern. The simulated results show that the concentration contours agree qualitatively with the schlieren images in the literature. The experimental and simulated results show that the Rayleigh convection under investigation is dominated by the flow in the downward direction and impels exchange of the liquid between the interfacial vicinity and the liquid bulk promoting the renewal of interfacial liquid, and hence enhances mass transfer. The comparison between the simulated and experimental results demonstrated that the proposed LBM is a promising alternative for simulating mass transfer induced Rayleigh convection.