Transient and steady-state analysis of heat, mass, and momentum transfer in developing and fully-developed regions of homogeneous tubular reactors with non-Newtonian fluid flow

In this article, the problem of simultaneous heat, mass, and momentum transfer in the developing region of tubular reactors with homogeneous chemical reaction and laminar power-law fluid flow under unsteady-state conditions has been solved. In this regard, the general governing equations were solved using finite-difference method and analyzed carefully. Moreover, the influences of various parameters and dimensionless numbers such as power-law index, heat of reaction, reaction order, and Damköhler number value on the numerical results were investigated. In addition, the numerical results obtained for the fully-developed velocity distribution of Newtonian fluid flow and Sherwood number value were validated against the well-known fully-developed velocity distribution and reported Sherwood number value in the literature and good agreement was obtained.

► We solve heat, mass, and momentum transfer in a tubular chemical reactor. ► Homogeneous chemical reaction and laminar power-law fluid flow are considered. ► Transient and steady-state behavior of the chemical reactor is studied carefully. ► General governing equations are solved using finite-difference method and analyzed. ► Influences of various parameters on the simulation results are investigated.