The Performance of a Falling Film Absorber Using Thin Wires

Abstract

The performance study of a falling film multi-vertical tube absorber has been extended and applied to multi vertical 1mm diameter wires in the present work. The heat and mass transfer equations have been solved numerically using finite difference method. The wires are assumed to be cooled on both/ or one end to conduct heat from the absorbent. Results were presented in terms of Lewis number, heat of absorption and cooling factor. The mass effectiveness was found to increase with increasing the Lewis number and reduce with increasing heat of absorption. The overall performance of 1 mm diameter wire-absorber has greatly increased compared with the larger diameter-tube absorber. The overall performances of a 5 dimensionless length-absorber of different tube radius (100 mm, 40 mm, 20 mm, 5 mm) were compared to that of 0.5 mm radius. The overall performance of the wire was found to be higher. In other words, an absorber of 0.5 mm wire radius would absorb about 6.4 times more water vapor than one of same size but with 5mm tube radius. However, the overall performance has almost no effect on the system heat ratio.