A CFD model for mass transfer and interfacial phenomena on single droplets

Mass transfer and interfacial phenomena during simultaneous extraction of two components from a single spherical droplet to a surrounding continuous phase were investigated both experimentally and theoretically. The experiments were carried out in a single droplet measuring cell in which the mass transfer of acetone and methylisopropylketone from the disperse toluene phase to the continuous aqueous phase was investigated. The developed model takes into consideration the cross-effects of multicomponent mass transfer and the onset of Marangoni convection induced by mass transfer. The influence of Marangoni convection on the velocity field around the droplet was analyzed. The developed model was implemented into the commercial computational fluid dynamics software package CFX4.3. The results of the performed simulations agree well with experimental data. Influences of Reynolds numbers of the continuous phase and initial mass fraction on the extraction process were analyzed. Furthermore, the effect of multicomponent mass transfer on the onset of Marangoni convection was studied. (c) 2006 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.