Modeling of the Coupled Heat and Mass Transfer Through Porous Media on the Base of the Wave Approach

Abstract

A new method is given for mathematical modeling of the coupled heat and mass transfer through porous media. The behavior of the moisture level function in the vicinity of the critical value of the conductivity probability is discussed, at general initial-, and boundary conditions. Instead of the usually applied two coupled partial differential equations of parabolic type, a coupled system of hyperbolic partial differential equations containing also explicitly the relaxation time constants is used. A general solution is presented for the moisture level function, when the relaxation time constant relevant for temperature changes tends to value zero. This description is combined with scaling relations following from the contemporary statistical physical theory of percolation phenomena.

Keywords:

• Transport processes
• Concentration and heat waves
• Fluctuation theory
• Phase transitions
• Irreversible thermodynamics

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of OTKA T-032510, OTKA T-024146 and TÉT D-15/01 projects given for this work. One of the authors (Cs. Mészáros) also gratefully acknowledges the hospitality of the ATB Institute in Bornim (Potsdam, Germany), where part of this work has been done and support of the Eötvös Fellowship (417/2002) during his stay there.