International Journal of Energy Science and

Engineering
Vol. 1, No. 2, 2015, pp. 49-59
http://www.publicscienceframework.org/journal/ijese

Heat-Mass Transfer in a Tubular Chemical Reactor

Rehena Nasrin*
Department of Mathematics, Bangladesh University of Engineering& Technology, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh

Abstract
This paper analyzes numerically the effect of double-diffusive forced convection of fluid in a tubular chemical reactor. The
model provides a study of an elementary, exothermic, 2nd-order reversible reaction in a tubular reactor (liquid phase, laminar
flow regime). The aim of this project is to study numerically the effect of convective Heat and Mass transfer flow of a viscous
fluid in the reactor. Assuming that the variations in angular direction around the central axis are negligible makes it possible to
reduce the model to a 2D axisymmetric model. The governing equations namely mass, momentum, energy and material
conservation equations are solved by Finite Element Method using Galerkins weighted residual scheme. The effects of rate of
reaction and heat of reaction on the flow pattern and heat and mass transfer have been depicted. Comprehensive average Nusselt
and Sherwood numbers, average temperature and concentration and mean subdomain velocity of the tubular reactor are
presented as functions of the governing parameters mentioned above. Code validation is also shown with the results available in
the literature.
Keywords
Tubular Reactor, Heat-Mass Transfer, Finite Element Method
Received: March 28, 2015 / Accepted: April 11, 2015 / Published online: April 20, 2015
@ 2015 The Authors. Published by American Institute of Science. This Open Access article is under the CC BY-NC license.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

1. Introduction
Few researchers investigated the effects of forced convective
flows in tubular chemical reactor by using analytical,
experimental and numerical methods. Some important works
are presented below.
Combined heat and mass transfer from a horizontal channel
with an open cavity heated from below is numerically
examined Brown and Lai [1]. Parvin et al. [2] analyzed
numerically the effect of double-diffusive natural convection
of a waterAl2O3 nanofluid in a partially heated enclosure with
Soret and Dufour coefficients. Muthucumaraswamy and
Ganesan [3] studied effect of the chemical reaction and
injection on flow characteristics in an unsteady upward
motion of an isothermal plate. Deka et al. [4] studied the effect
of the first order homogeneous chemical reaction on the
process of an unsteady flow past an infinite vertical plate with

*Corresponding author
E-mail address: raity11@gmail.com

a constant heat and mass transfer. Chamkha [5] studied the

MHD flow of a numerical of uniformly stretched vertical
permeable
surface
in
the
presence
of
heat
generation/absorption and a chemical reaction. He assumed
that the plate is embedded in a uniform porous medium and
moves with a constant velocity in the flow direction in the
presence of a transverse magnetic field.
Ibrahim et al. [6] have studied the effect of chemical reaction
and radiation absorption on the unsteady MHD free
convection flow past a semi infinite vertical permeable
moving plate with heat source and suction. Kesavaiah et al. [7]
have studied the effect of the chemical reaction and radiation
absorption on an unsteady MHD convective heat and mass
transfer flow past a semi-infinite vertical permeable moving
plate embedded in a porous medium with heat source and
suction. Heat and mass transport in tubular packed reactors at
reacting and non-reacting conditions was analyzed by Koning
[8] where the most common models of wall-cooled tubular

50

Rehena Nasrin:

Heat-Mass Transfer in a Tubular Chemical Reactor

packed bed reactors were presented. The two dimensional

axial plug flow model was used for a water gas shift reactor to
compare heat conduction or mass diffusion with convective
effect. Heat and mass transfer in tubular reactor is shown in
[9-10]. The two dimensional axial plug flow model was used
for a water gas shift reactor to compare heat conduction or
mass diffusion with convective effect in his study.
The design of catalyst particles for fixed-bed reactor is
optimized by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The CFD
is used to obtain detailed flow and temperature fields in the
reactor. In the field of reactor engineering, physical demands
such as low pressure drop or high heat transfer efficiency are
often in conflict with chemical demands such as gas contact
efficiency [11]. Low tube-to-particle diameter ratio is needed
for heat management, i.e. sufficient heat supply from the
reactor wall for highly endothermic reaction or sufficient heat
removal to the reactor wall for highly exothermic reaction [12].
Steam reforming of hydrocarbons is one of the examples,
which is an endothermic reaction [13], while another is CO
combustion, which is an exothermic reaction.
The early stage of reactor modelling has been based on
simplifying assumption such as homogeneity, effective
transport parameters, and pellet effectiveness factors [14, 15].
Homogeneity stands for viewing the fixed-bed as a single
phase continuum. The assumption of effective or apparent
transport parameters is based on the idea of unidirectional
axial plug flow of the fluid throughout the reactor. These
effective transport parameters are determined empirically, i.e.
the parameters lump together all of the contributing physical
phenomena. This assumption is still employed frequently in
reactor modelling [16-18]. However, this approach has always
caused inconsistency in the heat transfer coefficient or wall
Nusselt number among a number of reported results. The
inconsistency is originated from the lack of the local-scale
flow picture of the bed. Recent magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) [19] have demonstrated that heat is transferred not
solely by axial flow but also by strong radial convective flows
as fluid is displaced around the packing elements.
Masoumi et al. [20] developed a 1D steady-state model for
tubular reactors in naphtha cracking. A free-radical reaction
scheme including 90 species and 543 reactions was used. An
optimization study was performed with the aim to maximize
operating. Computational techniques for fluid flow have
recently employed for reactor modelling as an alternative
method to the above mentioned semi-empirical method, in
attempting to understand detailed flow in the pore scale. The
approach was validated by comparing apparent transport
parameters with those from model-matching theory based on
experimental measurements [21, 22]. One of the outcomes of
CFD is a complex picture of strong radial flow. Local heat
transfer rates were shown not to be correlated statistically with

the local flow field [23]. The pressure and the wall
temperature were found to have little or no influence on the
apparent heat transfer parameters [24]. One of the concerns in
CFD is that all elements have a finite dimension in all edges,
which does not allow actual contact points between solid parts.
This limitation causes inconsistency of heat transfer
coefficient with the one calculated by model-matching theory.
To avoid this, the diameter of the particles was slightly
reduced in the model and finer mesh density was applied to
wall-particle and particle-particle contact regions [25]. Very
recently, semi-empirical relation for forced convective
analysis through a solar collector was studied by Nasrin and
Alim [26].
In the light of above discussions, it is seen that there has been a
good number of works in the field of heat and mass transfer
system through chemical reactor. In spite of that there is some
scope to work with fluid flow, heat-mass transfer and
enhancement of reactor efficiency especially for tubular
reactor.
The knowledge of forced convection heat transfer has many
significant engineering applications; for example, geothermal
engineering, solar-collectors, cold storage performance,
thermal insulation of buildings, chemical reactors, electrical,
microelectronic equipments containers and in many other
design problems convective heat transfer is predominant.
Therefore the analysis of the heat-mass transfer through a
tubular reactor is necessary to ensure better performance of
production. This forms the basis of the motivation behind
selecting the present research.

2. Physical Configuration
The model geometry of tubular reactor is given in the figure 1.
This model consists of an inlet boundary, an outlet boundary, a
reactor wall facing the cooling jacket, a cooling jacket, and a
symmetry line running axially along the tubular reactor.
Assuming that the variations in angular direction around the
central axis are negligible makes it possible to reduce the
model to a 2D axisymmetric model. A schematic diagram of
the system considered in the present research is shown in the
figure 2. In this study, an axial two dimensional tubular reactor
model is built up numerically using software.Land Ra are the
length and radius of the reactor.Only steady state case is
considered.
2.1. Mathematical Formulation
This example provides a study of an elementary, exothermic,
second order reversible reaction

International Journal of Energy Science and Engineering Vol. 1, No. 2, 2015, pp. 49-59

in a tubular reactor (liquid phase, laminar flow regime). The

reactor is equipped with a cooling jacket to limit the
temperature increase due to the exothermic nature of the
reaction and avoid an explosion. The model is described by
the mass and momentum balances for the laminar flow region,
material balances for the species involved and the energy
balances for the reactor and the cooling jacket.
Assuming that the diffusivity for the three species is identical,
the reactor can be modeled using six differential equations;
one mass balance and two momentum balances for laminar
flow, one material balance for one of the species, one energy
balance for the reactor core, and one energy balance for the
heating jacket. Due to rotational symmetry, only the solution
of these equations is obtained for half of the domain shown in
the figure 2.
The mass balance, momentum balances, material balances and
energy balances in the tubular reactor can be represented with
partial differential equations (PDEs), while one ordinary
differential equation (ODE) is required for the energy balance
in the cooling jacket.

51

The material balance and the energy balance in the reactor are
defined in the governing equations while the ordinary
differential equation describes the energy balance in the
cooling jacket is defined as a boundary equation.
The mass, momentum, energy and material balances for the
tubular reactor can be described by:
Mass Conservation Equation:

1 ( rvr ) ( vz )
+
=0
r r
z

(1)

Momentum Conservation Equations:

1
( rvr vr ) + ( rvz vr )
z
r r

2 vr vr
v
p
v
=
+
r
+ r
2 r2 + z

r
z r
r
r r r z z

1
( rvr vz ) + ( rvz vz )
r
r
z

(2)

(3)

1 vz
p
v 1 vr
r
r
=
+
+2 z +

z
z z r r z
r r r

Energy Conservation Equation:

C p vr

T
T
+ vz

r
z

T
=k
z z

1 T
+
r
r r r

Ea
H r , j Ae GcT

(4)

Material Conservation Equation:

Ea

C p vr

Figure 1. Geometry for 2D rotationally symmetric model of tubular reactor.

Here

c 1 c
c
c
G T
+ vz = k +
r Ae c

r
z
z z r r r

E
R = A exp a
GcT

is

the

rate

of

(5)

reaction,

Ea
H r , j Ae GcT

is the heat of reaction, Pr = is

v L
Prandtl number and Re = in is the Reynolds number.

H =

The boundary condition also simulated the actual reaction

condition. Figure 2 shows the boundary conditions for
velocity, temperature, and CO concentration. The inlet gas

Figure 2. Schematic diagram of the tubular reactor.

composition was set to 13%CO-8%CO2- 28%H2O- 51%H2,

which corresponds to 2.542 mol/m3 of CO concentration. The
fluid velocity at inlet is assumed laminar flow with average
velocity of 0.085 m/s.
The boundary conditions are:

52

Rehena Nasrin:

Heat-Mass Transfer in a Tubular Chemical Reactor

at the inlet: vr = 0, vz = vin, T =Tin, c = Cin

2.2. Average Nusselt and Sherwood

Numbers

at the outlet: convective heat and mass boundary condition

at the right wall: non slip condition, T =Th, mass insuration
condition
at the left wall: axial symmetry condition.
The effect of water gas shift reaction was included in heat and
mass transfer. However, the total molar amount of the gas was
assumed constant, i.e. the fluid was assumed to be ideal gas, so
that the equation of momentum balance is independent of
those of heat and mass transfer. This assumption also
simplifies the calculation of mass, i.e. only CO concentration
is needed for consideration. The rate expression of water gas
shift was based on Arrhenius equation as shown below. The
reaction orders for reactants and products were obtained from
literature. The term of approach to equilibrium, , was
introduced so that it counts suppression of the reaction rate in
the CO concentration range close to equilibrium. Although
reaction orders, activation energy, pre-exponential factor are
affected by temperature or mass concentration, they were
assumed constant for simplification. Nonetheless, this rate
expression realizes mutual interaction between heat and mass
balance.

R (rate) = dc(CO)/dt = - Aexp(-Ea/GcT)

aCO0.1aH2O0.8aCO2-0.2aH2-0.6 (1-)

1
S

opening

r dz and rate of mass transfer along the inlet

0

Sh =

is

1
S

z dr

Where

is

the

non-dimensional length of the heated/contaminant surface.

Non-dimensional quantities are:
r =

r
,
L

z =

(T Tin ) , C = ( c Cin )
z
v
v
, Vr = r , Vz = z , =
L
Vin
Vin
T
c

2.3. Mean Bulk Temperature, Concentration

and Velocity
The mean bulk temperature, concentration and magnitude of
sub domain velocity of the fluid inside the tubular reactor can
bewritten

as

av = dV / V

Cav = C dV / V

where V is the volume of the tubular chemical reactor.

= (aCO2 aH2) / (aCO aH2O) K

Where A is pre-exponential factor for the reaction rate, Ea is
activation energy and Gc is gas constant.
Only axial temperature variations may present in the cooling
jacket and the flow eliminates any temperature differences in
the radial direction. This assumption gives a single ODE for
the energy balance:
(6)

where Ta is the coolants temperature, mc is the mass flow rate

of the coolant, Cpc represents its heat capacity, and Uk is the
total heat-transfer coefficient between the reactor and the
cooling jacket. The contribution of heat conduction in the
cooling jacket is neglected and thus it is assumed that heat
transport takes place only through convection.
As a boundary condition the temperature of the incoming
cooling fluid:
Ta ( 0 ) = Ta0

Nu =

Vav = V dV / V ,

Water gas shift reaction: CO + H2O = CO2 + H2

Ta 2 RaU k (T Ta )
=
z
mc C pc

The average Nusselt number (Nu) is expected to depend on a

number of factors such as thermal conductivity, heat
capacitance, viscosity and flow structure. The rate of heat
transfer along the right heated wall of the tubular reactor is

3. Finite Element Formulation

and Computational
Procedure
The governing equations along with the boundary conditions
are solved numerically, employing Galerkin weighted residual
finite element techniques. To derive the finite element
equations, the method of weighted residuals [27-29]is applied
to the governing equations (1) (5). Gausss Divergence
theorem is applied to transfer the 2nd ordered derivative part of
the governing equations into 1st order derivatives. Gaussian
quadrature technique is used in momentum, energy and
concentration equations in order to generate the boundary
integral terms associated with the surface tractions, heat flux
and concentration flux. The basic unknowns for the above
differential equations are the velocity components vr, vz, the
temperature T,the concentration c and the pressure p. The six
node triangular element is used in this work for the
development of the finite element equations. All six nodes are
associated with velocities, temperature as well as
concentration. Only the corner nodes are associated with
pressure. This means that a lower order polynomial is chosen
for pressure and which is satisfied through continuity equation.

International Journal of Energy Science and Engineering Vol. 1, No. 2, 2015, pp. 49-59

The element matrices are evaluated in closed form ready for

numerical simulation. Substituting the element velocity
components, the temperature, the concentration and the
pressure distributions to the governing equations the linear
algebraic equations are obtained. Then the equations are
solved by applying the Newton-Raphson iteration technique.
This leads to a set of algebraic equations with the incremental
unknowns of the element nodal velocity components,
temperatures, concentration and pressures.The iteration
process is terminated if the percentage of the overall change
compared to the previous iteration is less than the specified
value.To solve the sets of the global nonlinear algebraic
equations in the form of matrix, the Newton-Raphson iteration
technique has been adapted through PDE solver with
MATLAB interface. The convergence of solutions is assumed
when the relative error for each variable between consecutive
iterations is recorded below the convergence criterion such

53

a valuable practical tool for the solution of boundary value

problems arising in various fields of engineering. Figure3
displays the finite element mesh of the present physical
domain.

that n +1 n < , where n is number of iteration and

= vr , vz , T , c and p. The convergence criterion was set to

= 10-6.

Figure 3. Mesh generation of the tubular reactor.

3.3. Code Validation

3.1. Grid Refinement Check

An extensive mesh testing procedure is conducted to
guarantee a grid-independent solution for Re = 1.5, Pr = 7, H =
1and R = 1 through the tubular reactor. In the present work,
five different non-uniform grid systems are examined with the
following number of elements within the resolution field: 86,
170, 506, 2024 and 8096. The numerical scheme is carried out
for highly precise key in the Nu and Sh for the aforesaid
elements to develop an understanding of the grid fineness as
shown in Table 1. The scale of the average Nusselt and
Sherwood numbers for 2024 elements shows a little difference
with the results obtained for the other elements. Hence,
considering the non-uniform grid system of 2024 elements is
preferred for the computation.
Table 1. Grid Testat Re = 1.5, Pr = 7, H = 1kJ/mol and R = 1 mol/m3/s.
Elements
Nu
Sh
Time (s)

86
6.82945
0.53256
126.265

170
7.23842
0.71475
312.594

506
7.72141
0.92181
398.157

2024
8.00183
1.10204
481.328

8096
8.00206
1.10275
929.377

3.2. Mesh Generation

In the finite element method, the mesh generation is the
technique to subdivide a domain into a set of sub-domains,
called finite elements, control volume, etc. The discrete
locations are definedby the numerical grid, at which the
variables are to be calculated. It is basically a discrete
representation of the geometric domain on which the problem
is to be solved. The computational domains with irregular
geometries by a collection of finite elements make the method

Figure 4. Comparison between present code and Kugai[9].

The present numerical code is validated by comparing the

current code results for velocity field radial distance [r]
profile of fluid withthe graphical representation of Kugai [9]
at average flow rate 0.4 m/s.Effect of average flow rate on
z-velocity is shown in the figure 4. Heat and mass transfer on
fixed bed tubular reactor was reported by Kugai [9].Fig. 4
demonstrates the above stated comparison.As shown inthe
figure4, the numerical solutions {present work andKugai [9]}
are in goodagreement.
Validity of the simulation is also checked
COconcentration at equilibrium constant of 21.34
reaction temperature (623.15K). CO concentration
calculated to be 0.566 mol/m3, which is consistent with
simulated result.

by
for
is
the

54

Rehena Nasrin:

Heat-Mass Transfer in a Tubular Chemical Reactor

The maximum Reynolds number (Re) inside the reactor

ranged from 0.1 to 2, which indicates the system is stable.
Since characteristic mesh length L is around 2 x10-4 m,
estimated Reynolds number (Re) from is 0.4, which is within
the range obtained from the simulation. Peclet number (Pe)
for mass transfer ranged from 0.1 to 1.5, which is also low
enough for the simulation to converge. The estimated Pe
from is 0.3, which is also in good agreement with simulation.
Re = vL / and
Pe = vL / D

4. Result and Discussions

Finite element simulation is applied to perform the analysis of
laminar forced convection temperature, fluid flow,
concentration through a tubular chemical reactor. Effects of
the rate of reaction (R) and heat of reaction (H) on heat-mass
transfer, fluid velocity through the tubular reactor have been
studied. The ranges of R and H for this investigation vary from
1 to 5 and (-400kJ/mol) to (+20kJ/mol) respectively. The
outcomes for the different cases are presented in the following
sections. Reynolds number (Re = 1.5), Prandtl number (Pr = 7)
are kept fixed.
4.1. Effect of Rate of Reaction (R)

Figure 5. Effect of R on (a) surface plot and (b) isotherms, (c) iso-concentration and (d) streamlines plot.

The effect of rate of chemical reaction (R) on the surface

temperature, isotherms, iso-concentrations and streamlines is
exhibited inthe figure5 (a-d). In fact, the analysis is performed
at forced convection regime by fixing Re= 1.5. Also Pr = 7, H
= 1 kJ/mol are kept fixed. The values ofchemical reaction rates

1mol/m3/s, 2mol/m3/s, 3mol/m3/s and 5mol/m3/s are chosen to

examine
the
evolution
of
surface
temperature,
isotherm,iso-concentration and streamlinepatterns. Figure 5 (a)
expresses that the surface temperature increases due to
increasing rate of chemical reaction from 1mol/m3/s to

International Journal of Energy Science and Engineering Vol. 1, No. 2, 2015, pp. 49-59

55

5mol/m3/s inside the tubular chemical reactor.

concentration transfer.

The isothermal lines have considerable change due to the

variation of R. When there is generating small chemical
reaction, lower density of isothermal lines appear at the outlet
portion of the channel. But for higher values of rate of
chemical reaction, appearance of these lines is more at the
outlet opening. It is seen from the figure 5 (b) that, at the
highest value of R, the lower temperature lines remain at the
inlet opening where as the higher temperature lines at the exit
port. Temperature gradient at the right heated surface becomes
lower for increasing chemical reaction in the fluid. This
happens because higher temperature of the fluid produces
lower temperature difference between the heated surface and
the fluid.

There is a common trend of the development of streamlines

with generating chemical reaction inside the computational
domain. The streamlines are almost parallel to the channel
wall and condensed in axial symmetric region. In addition, the
streamlines becomemore condensed along the middle of the
tubular reactor due to increasing chemical reaction effect. This
indicates higher velocity.

Figure5 (c) shows the iso-concentration lines which have also

substantial change due to generating chemical reaction.
Iso-concentration lines spreads all over the tubular chemical
reactor. As rate of chemical reaction increases, these lines
depart to the exit port. Higher concentration causes lower
concentration gradient which indicates lower mass
transportation. This phenomenon is logical because generating
chemical reaction causes higher velocity which leads to more

In the Figure6 (i)-(v)average Nusselt number (Nu)at the right

hot surface, average Sherwood number (Sh) at the inlet, mean
temperature(av) and concentration (Cav), average velocity
(Vav) in the tubular reactor with the effect of chemical reaction.
Increasing Rdecreases the value of Nu due to lowering the
temperature difference. Heat transfer rate devalues by 23%
with the variation of chemical reaction rate R from 1mol/m3/s
to 5 mol/m3/s. Similarly, reduced mass transfer rate is
observed for increasing the rate of chemical reaction through
the tubular chemical reactor.The reduction rate of mass
transfer (Sh) is 25%. Average temperature and concentration
rise for higher values of R. It is observed from the figure 6 (v)
that the average velocity (Vav) increases due to the increase the
chemical reaction rate (R).

Figure 6. Effect of R on (i) mean Nusselt number, (ii) mean Sherwood number, (iii) mean temperature, (iv) mean concentration and (v) mean velocity.

56

Rehena Nasrin:

Heat-Mass Transfer in a Tubular Chemical Reactor

4.2. Effect of Heat of Reaction (H)

Figure 7 (a-d) exhibits the effect of H on the surface
temperature, isotherms, iso-concentrations and streamlines.
The values of heat of reaction (H) are -400kJ/mol, -200kJ/mol,
1kJ/mol and 20kJ/mol chosen to examine the evolution of
surface
temperature,
isotherm,iso-concentration
and
streamline patterns. Heat of reaction (H) is varied from
slightly endothermic (+20kJ/mol) to highly exothermic
(-400kJ/mol). Here Re = 1.5, Pr = 7, R = 1mol/m3/s are kept
fixed.
Figure 7 (a) shows that H does not have much effect on
surface temperature. Even the most exothermic reaction
increased the surface temperature only by a few degrees.
Accordingly, water gas shift reaction is not affected by H.
Isothermal lines have significant change due to the variation
of H. At H =(-400kJ/mol), isothermal lines appear at the right

hot surface of the tubular reactor. But for higher values of H,

these lines spread all over the reactor. It is seen from the figure
that, at the highest value of H(= +20kJ/mol), the lower
temperature lines remain at the inlet portion where as the
higher temperature lines at the right surface. Temperature
gradient at the heat source becomes lower for increasing heat
generation in the fluid. This happens because higher
temperature of the fluid produces lower temperature
difference between the hot surface and the fluid.
Iso-concentration lines have also considerable change due to
generating heat as shown in the figure 7 (c). Iso-concentration
lines spreads all over the tubular chemical reactor. As heat
generation increases these lines depart to the exit port which
indicates higher mass transportation. This phenomenon is
logical because heat generation causes higher velocity which
leads to more concentration transfer.

Figure 7. Effect of H on (a) surface plot and (b) isotherms, (c) iso-concentration, and (d) streamlines plot.

International Journal of Energy Science and Engineering Vol. 1, No. 2, 2015, pp. 49-59

57

Figure 8. Effect of H on (i) mean Nusselt number, (ii) mean Sherwood number, (iii) mean temperature, (iv) mean concentration and (v) mean velocity.

It is observed from the figure 7 (d) that there is a common

trend of the development of streamlines with increasing heat
generation parameter. The streamlines are almost parallel to
the reactor wall and condensed near the right surface and axial
symmetric surface. The streamlines become more condensed
along the middle of the channel due to increasing heat
generation effect. This indicates higher velocity.
The heat and mass transfer rates, meanbulk temperature and
concentration, magnitude of average sub-domain velocity for
fluid with the variation of heat of reaction (H) are displayed in
the figure8 (i)-(v). It is seen from the figure8 (i) that the
highest heat transfer rate is observed for the exothermic flow
(H= -400 kJ/mol). Increasing H decreases the value of Nu due
to lowering the temperature difference Enhanced mass
transfer rate (Sh) is observed in the figure 8 (ii) for decreasing
values of heat of reaction (H).For the rate of forced convective
heat and mass transfer decrease by 12% and 15% respectively
for increasing heat of reaction (H). Mean bulk temperature (av)
and concentration (Cav) grow up slightly for the variation of
heat of reaction from (-400kJ/mol) to (+20kJ/mol). On the
other hand, figure 8 (v) depicts that Vav rises with the
increment of H.

5. Conclusion
The problem of finite element modeling of heat and mass
transport in a tubular reactor has been studied numerically.
Temperature and concentration and flow fields in terms of

surface temperature, isotherms, iso-concentration and

streamline have been considered for various heat of reaction
and rate of chemical reaction. The present investigation is
done for steady-state, incompressible, laminar and forced
convective flow through a tubular chemical reactor.The results
of the numerical analysis lead to the following conclusions:
The heat of reaction H has considerable effect on surface
temperature,
isotherms,
iso-concentration
and
streamlines plots Perturbation is observed in the
conductive and convective heat and mass distribution
nearby the right hot wall and inlet opening respectively
with the variation of H.
More complicated flow is obtained for the effect of
chemical reaction rate R. The thermal current activities
of the fluid are found to significantly depend upon R. The
temperature and concentration gradient decrease with
rising values of chemical reaction rate. Consequently
mean velocity enhances.

Acknowledgements
This research work is done in the Department of Mathematics,
Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology,
Dhaka-1000. This research is financed by Information &
Communication Technology, Ministry of Science,Bangladesh
Computer Council Bhaban, Agargaon, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar,
Dhaka-1207.

58

Rehena Nasrin:

Heat-Mass Transfer in a Tubular Chemical Reactor

Nomenclature
A
c
C
Cp
Ea
k
L
H
m
Nu
p
Pe
Pr
R
Re
Sh
T
vr
vz
V

Pre-exponential factor
Dimensional concentration of fluid (kg/l)
Dimensionless concentration of fluid
Specific heat at constant pressure (J kg -1K -1)
Activation energy (kJ/mol)
Thermal conductivity of fluid (Wm-1K-1)
Length of the reactor along z axis (m)
Heat of reaction (kJ/mol)
Mass flow rate (Kgs-1)
Average Nusselt number
Pressure
Peclet number
Prandtl number
Rate of chemical reaction (mol/m3/s)
Reynolds number
Mean Sherwood number
Fluid temperature (K)
Velocity in r-direction (ms -1)
Velocity in z-direction (ms -1)
Magnitude of mean velocity
Volume of reactor (m3)
V
Greek symbols
Thermal diffusivity (m2s -1)

Dimensionless fluid temperature

Dynamic viscosity of the fluid (m2s-1)

Kinematic viscosity of the fluid (m2s-1)

Density of the fluid (kgm-3)

Increment
Subscripts
av
average
in
input
h
heated
out
output

References
[1]

[2]

[3]

Brown, N. and Lai, F., Correlations for combined heat and mass
transfer from an open cavity in a horizontal channel, Int.
Commun. in Heat and Mass Transf., Vol. 32, No. 8, pp.
10001008, 2005.
Parvin S., Nasrin R., Alim, M.A. and Hossain, N.F.,
Double-diffusive natural convection in a partially heated
enclosure using a nanofluid, Heat Transf. - Asian Res., 41, No.
6, pp 484-497, 2012.
Muthucumaraswamy, R., Ganesan, P., Effect of the chemical
reaction and injection on flow characteristics in an unsteady
upward motion of an isothermal plate, J. Appl. Mech. Tech.
Phys., Vol. 42, pp. 665-671, 2001.

[6]

Ibrahim, F.S., Elaiw, A.M., Bakr, A.A., Effect of chemical

reaction and radiation absorption on the unsteady MHD free
convection flow past a semi infinite vertical permeable moving
plate with heat source and suction, Comm. in Nonlinear Sci.
and Num. Simul., Vol.13, pp. 1056-1066, 2008.

[7]

Kesavaiah, DC.H., Satyanarayana, P.V. and Venkataramana, S.,

Effects of the chemical reaction and radiation absorption on an
unsteady MHD convective heat and mass transfer flow past a
semi-infinite vertical permeable moving plate embedded in a
porous medium with heat source and suction. Int. J. of Appl.
Math. and Mech., Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 52-69, 2011.

[8]

Koning, B., Heat and mass transport in tubular packed bed

reactors at reacting and non-reacting conditions, Ph.D. Thesis,
University of Twente, Netherland, 2002.

[9]

Kugai, J.,Heat and mass transfer in fixed-bed tubular reactor,

May 1st 2008, 2008.

[10] Frolov, S.V., Tretyakov, A.A. and Nazarov, V.N., Problem of

optimal control of monomethylaniline synthesis in a tubular
reactor, Theore. Found. of Chem. Engg., Vol. 40, No. 4, pp.
349356, 2006
[11] Nijemeisland, M., Dixon, A.G. and Stitt, E.H., Catalyst design
by CFD for heat transfer and reaction in steam reforming,
Chem. Engg. Sci., Vol. 59, pp. 5185-5191, 2004.
[12] Rostrup-Nielsen, J.R., Sehested, J.and Norskov, J.K.,
Hydrogen and synthesis gas by steam- and CO2 reforming, Adv.
Catal, Vol. 47, pp. 65-139, 2002.
[13] Kvamsdal, H.M., Svendsen, H.F., Hertzberg, T.and Olsvik, O.,
Dynamic simulation and optimization of a catalytic steam
reformer, Chem. Engg. Sci., Vol. 54, pp. 2697-2706, 1999.
[14] Dixon, A.G. and Nijemeisland, M., CFD as a design tool for
fixed-bed reactors, Ind. Engg. Chem. Res., Vol. 40, pp.
5246-5254, 2001.
[15] Dixon, A.G. and Cresswell, D.L. Theoretical prediction of
effective heat-transfer parameters in packed-beds, Aiche. J.,
Vol. 25, pp. 663-676, 1979.
[16] Bunnell, D.G., Irvin, H.B., Olson, R.W. and Smith, J.M.,
Effective thermal conductivities in gas-solid systems,Ind. Engg.
Chem., Vol. 41, pp. 1977-1981, 1949.
[17] Nijemeisland, M. and Dixon, A.G., Comparison of CFD
simulations to experiment for convective heat transfer in a
gas-solid fixed bed, Chem. Engg. J., Vol. 82, pp. 231-246,
2001.
[18] Dixon, A.G. and Cresswell, D.L., Estimation of heat-transfer
parameters in packed-beds from radial temperature profiles Comment, Chem. Engg. J. Bioch Engg., Vol. 17, pp. 247-248,
1979.
[19] Gladden, L.F., Recent advances in MRI studies of chemical
reactors: ultrafast imaging of multiphase flows, Top Catal., Vol.
24, pp. 19-28, 2003.

[4]

Das, U.N., Deka, R., Soundalgekar, V.M., Effects of mass

transfer on flow past an impulsively started infinite vertical
plate with constant heat flux and chemical reaction, Forsch. in
Ingenieurw., Vol. 60, pp. 284-287, 1994.

[20] Masoumi, M.E., Sadrameli, S.M., Towfighi, J. and Niaei.

A.,Simulation, optimisation and control of a thermal cracking
furnace, Energy, Vol. 31, p516527, 2006.

[5]

Chamka, A.J., MHD flow of a numerical of uniformly stretched

vertical permeable surface in the presence of heat
generation/absorption and a chemical reaction, Int. Commun.
In Heat and Mass Transf., Vol. 30, pp. 413-22, 2003.

[21] Gladden,L.F., Mantle, M.D. Sederman,A.J. and Yuen, E.H.L.,

Magnetic resonance imaging of single- and two-phase flow in
fixed-bed reactors, Appl. Magn. Reson., Vol. 22, pp.201-212,
2002.

International Journal of Energy Science and Engineering Vol. 1, No. 2, 2015, pp. 49-59

[22] Ziolkowska, I. and Ziolkowski, D., Modelling of gas interstitial

velocity radial distribution over cross-section of a tube packed
with granular catalyst bed; effects of granule shape and of
lateral gas mixing" Chem. Engg. Sci., Vol. 62, pp. 2491-2502,
2007.
[23] Logtenberg, S.A. and Dixon, A.G., Computational fluid
dynamics studies of fixed bed heat transfer, Chem. Engg.
Process, Vol. 37, pp. 7-21, 1998.
[24] Dixon, A.G., Nijemeisland, M.and Stitt, E.H., CFD study of
heat transfer near and at the wall of a fixed bed reactor tube:
Effect of wall conduction, Ind. Engg. Chem. Res., Vol. 44, pp.
6342-6353, 2005.
[25] Taskin, M.E., Dixon,A.G. and Stitt, E.H., CFD study of fluid
flow and heat transfer in a fixed bed of cylinders, Numer. Heat
Transf.-Appl., Vol. 52, pp. 203-218, 2007.

59

[26] Nasrin, R. and Alim, M.A.,Semi-empirical relation for forced

convective analysis through a solar collector, Solar Energy, Vol.
105, pp. 455-467, 2014.
[27] Zienkiewicz, O.C. and Taylor, R.L., The finite element method,
Fourth Ed., McGraw-Hill, 1991.
[28] Taylor, C., Hood, P., A numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes
equations using finite element technique, Computer and Fluids,
Vol. 1, pp. 7389, 1973.
[29] Dechaumphai, P., Finite element method in engineering, 2nd
ed., Chulalongkorn University Press, Bangkok, 1999.