Approach to transverse uniformity of concentration distribution of a solute in a solvent flowing along a straight pipe
AbstractAssociated with Taylor’s classical analysis of scalar solute dispersion in the laminar flow of a solvent in a straight pipe, this work explores the approach towards transverse uniformity of concentration distribution. Mei’s homogenization technique is extended to find solutions for the concentration transport. Chatwin’s result for the approach to longitudinal normality is recovered in terms of the mean concentration over the cross-section. The asymmetrical structure of the concentration cloud and the transverse variation of the concentration distribution are concretely illustrated for the initial stage. The rate of approach to uniformity is shown to be much slower than that to normality. When the longitudinal normality of mean concentration is well established, the maximum transverse concentration difference remains near one-half of the centroid concentration of the cloud. A time scale up to$10 R^2/D$($R$is the radius of the pipe and$D$is the molecular diffusivity) is suggested to characterize the transition to transverse uniformity, in contrast to the time scale of$0.1 R^2/D$estimated by Taylor for the initial stage of dispersion, and that of$1.0 R^2/D$by Chatwin for longitudinal normality.