Heat transfer, diffusion, and evaporation

Although it has long been known that the differential equations of the heat-transfer and diffusion processes are identical, application to technical problems has only recently been made. In 1916 it was shown that the speed of oxidation of the carbon in iron ore depends upon the speed with which the oxygen of the combustion air diffuses through the core of gas surrounding the carbon surface. The identity previously referred to was then used to calculate the amount of oxygen diffusing to the carbon surface on the basis of the heat transfer between the gas stream and the carbon surface. Then in 1921, H. Thoma reversed that procedure; he used diffusion experiments to determine heat-transfer coefficients. Recently Lohrisch has extended this work by experiment. A technically very important application of the identity of heat transfer and diffusion is that of the cooling tower, since in this case both processes occur simultaneously.