Meniscus behaviors and capillary pressures in capillary channels having various cross-sectional geometries

A numerical study has been conducted to simulate the liquid/gas interface(meniscus) behaviors and capillary pressures in various capillary channels using the volume of fluid(VOF) method. Calculations are performed for four channels whose cross-sectional shapes are circle, regular hexagon, square and equilateral triangle and for four solid/liquid contact angles of 30°, 60°, 120° and 150°. No calculation is needed for the contact angle of 90° because the liquid/gas interface in this case can be thought to be a plane surface. In the calculations, the liquid/gas interface in each channel is assumed to have a flat surface at the initial time, it changes towards its due shape thereafter, which is induced by the combined action of the surface tension and contact angle. After experiencing a period of damped oscillation, it stabilizes at a certain geometry. The interface dynamics and capillary pressures are compared among different channels under three categories including the equal inscribed circle radius, equal area, and equal circumscribed circle radius. The capillary pressure in the circular channel obtained from the simulation agrees well with that given by the Young–Laplace equation, supporting the reliability of the numerical model. The channels with equal inscribed circle radius yield the closest capillary pressures, while those with equal circumscribed circle radius give the most scattered capillary pressures,with those with equal area living in between. A correlation is developed to calculate the equivalent radius of a polygonal channel, which can be used to compute the capillary pressure in such a channel by combination with the Young–Laplace equation.

Non-equilibrium thermodynamic analysis of coupled heat and moisture transfer across a membrane

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics theory is used to analyze the transmembrane heat and moisture transfer process,which can be observed in a membrane-type total heat exchanger(THX).A theoretical model is developed to simulate the coupled heat and mass transfer across a membrane,total coupling equations and the expressions for the four characteristic parameters including the heat transfer coefficient,molardriven heat transfer coefficient,thermal-driven mass transfer coefficient,and mass transfer coefficient are derived and provided,with the Onsager’s reciprocal relation being confirmed to verify the rationality of the model.Calculations are conducted to investigate the effects of the membrane property and air state on the coupling transport process.The results show that the four characteristic parameters directly affect the transmembrane heat and mass fluxes:the heat and mass transfer coefficients are both positive,meaning that the temperature difference has a positive contribution to the heat transfer and the humidity ratio difference has a positive contribution to the mass transfer.The molar-driven heat transfer and thermal-driven mass transfer coefficients are both negative,implying that the humidity ratio difference acts to reduce the heat transfer and the temperature difference works to diminish the mass transfer.The mass transfer affects the heat transfer by 1%–2%while the heat transfer influences the mass transfer by7%–14%.The entropy generation caused by the temperature difference-induced heat transfer is much larger than that by the humidity difference-induced mass transfer.