Mass transfer enhancement in non-Brownian particle suspension under a confined shear

This paper shows the effect of the hydrodynamic interactions between non-Brownian isotropic particles for mass transfer enhancement in a shear flow generated by sliding walls in two dimensions through the direct numerical simulations. The particles are considered as a separate phase, while suspending solvent is modeled using the Stokes equation of which inertial and buoyancy effect are neglected. In the numerical simulation, we employ the finite element method to discretize the spatial domain with an explicit time stepping method. Interface capturing method is used to identify the boundary between the particle and the fluid. Automated adaptive mesh refinement is employed to increase the resolution in the vicinity of the particle boundaries as well as the interface between the solute and solvent. We investigate the effect of the particle hydrodynamics on mass transfer when the solute transports into the solvent and compare the mass transfer enhancements as a function of area fraction of multi-non-Brownian particles contributed. It is found that the mass transfer is enhanced by 3.6% in 1.0% area fraction which is a critical particle area fraction for the present flow conditions.