GREEN ELEMENT DESCRIPTION OF MASS TRANSFER IN REACTING SYSTEMS

Abstract

A novel and straightforward methodology is developed for the dynamics of mass transfer in reacting systems. The technique is derived using the Green's identity to implement the singular integral theory of the boundary-element method (BEM) in an element-by-element fashion. By adopting a finite-element approach, information is sought only from those nodes of the problem domain, which share a common element. The overall effect is that the global coefficient matrix is banded, and numerical difficulties that would arise from a densely populated matrix are avoided. The proposed method can provide an efficient framework for the study of flow reactors with chemical reaction under different conditions, in addition to providing a simple and an alternative technique for handling nonlinearity by the boundary integral method. The capabilities of GEM are demonstrated by simulating various reactor flow problems involving species reaction.