The dissolution or growth of a sphere

The problem of the dissolution or growth of an isolated stationary sphere in a large fluid body is analyzed. The motion of the boundary as well as the the resulting motion in the liquid are properly taken into account. The governing equations are solved using a recently developed technique (Subramanian and Weinberg, 1981) which employs an asymptotic expansion in time. Results for the radius of the sphere as a function of time are calculated. The range of utility of the present solution is established by comparison with a numerical solution of the governing equations obtained by the method of finite differences.