Mass transport in confinement - CO2 convection and diffusion in a narrow cylindrical liquid barrier
Daniel Faasen is a PhD student in the department Physics of Fluids. Promotors are prof.dr. R.M. van der Meer and prof.dr. D. Lohse from the faculty of Science & Technology.
In this thesis we study the dissolution of carbon dioxide and the subsequent mass transfer mechanisms in a liquid barrier confined to a narrow cylindrical cell, focusing both on the short-time transient behaviour and on the long-time, steady mass transfer processes under different experimental conditions. Due to the strong confinement, we force the formation of only a single convective plume after the onset of convection, allowing us to discriminate the initial diffusive behaviour, the moment of the onset of convection, and the propagation of the carbon dioxide into and through the liquid barrier. Furthermore, by trapping a slug bubble underneath the liquid barrier, we were able to quantify the quasi steady-state mass transfer in and through the liquid barrier.