Mass transfer from a single fluid sphere to power-law liquids at moderate Reynolds numbers

The steady-state convective inter-phase mass transfer from a single Newtonian fluid sphere (free from surfactants) to a continuous phase with power-law viscosity has been studied at moderate Reynolds and Schmidt numbers under the conditions when the resistance to mass transfer in the dispersed phase is negligible. The species continuity equation, segregated from the momentum equations of both phases, has been numerically solved using a finite difference method. The effects of the Reynolds number ( Re o ) , power-law index ( n o ) , internal to external fluid characteristic viscosity ratio ( k ) and Schmidt number ( Sc) on the local and average Sherwood number ( Sh) have been analysed over the following ranges of conditions: 5 ⩽ Re o ⩽ 200 , 0.6 ⩽ n o ⩽ 1.6 , 0.1 ⩽ k ⩽ 50 and 1 ⩽ Sc ⩽ 1000 . It has been observed that irrespective of the values of the Reynolds number and of the power-law index, as the value of k increases the average Sherwood number decreases for intermediate to large values of the Peclet number. As the value of the power-law index increases, the rate of mass transfer decreases for all values of the Reynolds number and the characteristic viscosity ratio thereby suggesting that shear-thinning behaviour facilitates mass transfer, whereas shear-thickening behaviour impedes it. Based on the present numerical results, a simple predictive correlation is proposed which can be used to estimate the rate of inter-phase mass transfer of a fluid sphere sedimenting in power-law liquids.