INTEGRAL TRANSFORM SOLUTION OF LUIKOV EQUATIONS FOR HEAT AND MASS-TRANSFER IN CAPILLARY-POROUS MEDIA

The Luikov system of equations for coupled heat and mass transfer within capillary porous bodies is analytically handled through application of the generalized integral transform technique. The problem of temperature and moisture distribution during contact drying of a moist porous sheet is considered to illustrate the development of the present approach. The classical coupled auxiliary problem with the related complex eigenvalues is completely avoided and, instead, two decoupled eigenvalue problems for temperature and moisture are chosen, which are of the conventional Sturm-Liouville type. A set of benchmark results is generated and critically compared with previously reported approximate solutions.