Numerical study on steady and transient mass/heat transfer involving a liquid sphere in simple shear creeping flow

A numerical method is utilized to examine the steady and transient mass/heat transfer processes that involve a neutrally buoyant liquid sphere suspended in simple shear flow at low Reynolds numbers is described. By making use of the known Stokes velocity field, the convection-diffusion equations are solved in the three-dimensional spherical coordinates system. For the mass transfer either outside or inside a liquid sphere, Sherwood number Sh approaches an asymptotic value for a given viscosity ratio at sufficiently high Peclet number Pe. In terms of the numerical results obtained in this work, two new correlations are derived to predict Sh at finite Pe for various viscosity ratios. (c) 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers