Flow behavior in weakly permeable micro-tube with varying viscosity near the wall

Abstract

Weakly permeable micro-tubes are employed in many applications involving heat and/or mass transfer. During these processes, either solute concentration builds up (mass transfer) or steep change in temperature (heat transfer) takes place near the permeable wall causing a change in the viscosity of the fluid. Results of the present work suggest that such change in viscosity leads to a considerable alteration in the flow behavior, and the commonly assumed parabolic velocity profile no longer exists. To solve the problem numerically, the equation of motion was simplified to represent permeation of incompressible, Newtonian fluid with changing viscosity through a micro-tube. Even after considerable simplification, the accuracy of the results was the same as that obtained by previously reported results for some specific cases using rigorous formulation. The algorithm developed in the present work is found to be numerically robust and simple so that it can be easily integrated with other simulations.

Keywords

• hollow-fiber
• micro-tube
• permeation
• algorithm
• variable viscosity
• velocity profile
• equation of motion
• navier-stokes equation