Experimental and Numerical Study on Effects of Airflow and Aqueous Ammonium Solution Temperature on Ammonia Mass Transfer Coefficient

Abstract This paper reports the results of an investigation, based on fundamental fluid dynamics and mass transfer theory, carried out to obtain a general understanding of ammonia mass transfer from an emission surface. The effects of airflow and aqueous ammonium solution temperature on ammonia mass transfer are investigated by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling and by a mechanism modeling using dissociation constant and Henry’s constant models based on the parameters measured in the experiments performed in a wind tunnel. The validated CFD model by experimental data is used to investigate the surface concentration distribution and mass transfer coefficient at different temperatures and velocities for which the Reynolds number is from 1.36 × 104 to 5.43 × 104 (based on wind tunnel length). The surface concentration increases as velocity decreases and varies greatly along the airflow direction on the emission surface. The average mass transfer coefficient increases with higher velocity and turbulence intensity. However, the mass transfer coefficient estimated by CFD simulation is consistently larger than the calculated one by the method using dissociation constant and Henry’s constant models. In addition, the results show that the liquid-air temperature difference has little impact on the simulated mass transfer coefficient by CFD modeling, whereas the mass transfer coefficient increases with higher liquid temperature using the other method under the conditions that the liquid temperature is lower than the air temperature. Although there are differences of mass transfer coefficients between these two methods, the mass transfer coefficients determined by these two methods are significantly related.