Taylor dispersion
In fluid mechanics, the Taylor dispersion (after the British mathematician and physicist Geoffrey Ingram Taylor ) is a process in which the effective diffusivity can be increased in a fluid channel through shear flow and thus the equalization of a concentration gradient can be made easier.
The laminar , parabolic flow profile shown in the figure is formed in a circular channel cross-section . Due to the friction and viscosity of the fluid , the flow velocity to the channel edge decreases ( Hagen-Poiseuille's law ).
Fluid particles that are directly adjacent at the beginning move apart due to the different speeds at which they are transported. As a result of this process, concentration gradients are compensated for in the canal, which is several orders of magnitude faster than pure diffusion processes.
literature
- EL Cussler: Diffusion: Mass Transfer in Fluid Systems . Cambridge University Press, 1997 ( limited preview in Google Book search).