Abstract
A numerical model which simulates the simultaneous heat and mass transfer within a vertical tube GAX absorber was developed. The ammonia vapor and the solution liquid are in counter-current flow, and the hydronic fluid flows counter to the solution liquid. The film thickness and the velocity distribution of the liquid film were obtained by matching the shear stress at the liquid-vapor interface. Two-dimensional diffusion and energy equations were solved in the liquid film to give the temperature and concentration, and a modified Colburn-Drew analysis was used for the vapor phase to determine the heat and mass fluxes at the liquid-vapor interface. The model was applied to a GAX absorber to investigate the absorption rates, temperature and concentration profiles, and mass flow rates of liquid and vapor phases. It was shown that the mass flux of water was negligible compared with that of ammonia except the region near the liquid inlet. Ammonia absorption rate increases rapidly near the liquid inlet and decrease slowly. Both the absorption rate of ammonia vapor and the desorption rate of water near the liquid inlet increase as the vapor mass flow rate increases, but the mass fluxes of the ammonia and the water near the liquid outlet decrease as the mass flow rate of the vapor increases.