Katerina Setnickova

Measurements on the flow of vapors near saturation through porous Vycor glass membranes

We present experimental data of the flow of butane and isobutane vapors through porous Vycor glass membranes. The pressure driven flow of vapors near and far from saturation through membranes with pore diameters of 20 and 33 nm is investigated. The upstream pressures lie between the saturation pressure at the upstream temperature to approximately half that value. The pressure differences are between a few kPa to about 100 kPa. From an adiabatic description of the flow process, we expect condensation of a vapor close enough to saturation and hence, due to the action of capillary forces, an increase in mass flux with respect to the mass flux of a vapor that remains in a gaseous state. According to the adiabatic description, a vapor that flows through a porous membrane may condense for two reason: One reason is capillary condensation in the pores of the membrane, the second reason is heat conduction from the upstream to the downstream side of the membrane due to the Joule-Thomson effect. If the flux of heat ...