Problem 3.- In a wetted wall tower of length 5 cm and radius 1.

5 cm, gas A is being

absorbed in a pure liquid B, falling vertically along the tower wall. Assume that this
process can be modelled as follows:

C A  2C A  2C A
 vy  DAB  DAB
y y 2 x 2

Where, y is the vertical direction, x is the horizontal direction, CA is the concentration of

gas A in film (mol/m3), vy (5e-3 m/s) is the velocity in the y direction and assumed to be
constant. DAB (1e-6 m2/s) is the diffusion coefficient of gas A in liquid B (m2/s). At the
interface, the concentration of gas A is given by its solubility in liquid B, i.e. CAO (0.2
mol/m3). The Figure below shows the boundary conditions and more details about the
process. The model is implemented using rectangular coordinates, x and y. The numbers
that appear in the Figure represent the boundary condition numbers.

x CA,in= 0.3 mol/m3

y 1
Insulated.
Tower Wall

Gas-liquid interface,
3 CA0=0.2 mol/m3

Flux by molecular
transport is negligible.

To answer the following questions, assume that the model is to be implemented in

COMSOL using a 2D geometry and the convection and diffusion model.

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a) (10 points) Subdomain settings: Specify the conditions on this window to model the
system shown above.

b) (10 points) Boundary settings: Fill-in the following table with the boundary
conditions for this problem. Note: the BC number matches the numbers shown in the
Figure above.

Mass transfer by Conduction and Convection

Boundary Number
Type Numerical Value
1
2
3
4

c) (10 points) Assume that the velocity profile in the film does not remain constant.
Incompressible Navier-Stokes is added into the model to account for the velocity
distribution in the film. Assuming that the dynamic viscosity is 8.4e-4 Pa-s and that
the density is 1000 Kg/m3, fill-in in the subdomain settings for both the
incompressible Navier-Stokes and the convection and diffusion models.

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d) (10 points) Assume that the velocity profile in the film is constant (5e-3 m/s) but the
gas A absorbed in liquid B reacts to produce a new component C in the system.
Assume that the reaction rate defined in terms of reactant A is as follows: rA  KC A2 ,
(K=1e-3 m3/mol-s). Rewrite your model in terms on this new assumption.

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e) (10 points) Redefine the sub-domain settings in the convection and diffusion model
according to the changes considered only in part d.