Abstract The effectiveness-number of transfer units (e-NTU) method was used to develop the heat and mass transfer model of air-gap diffusion distillation (AGDD). In this model, the latent heat transfer of vapor in air-gap was regarded as an equivalent convective heat transfer to make a relationship with NTU. Compared with the full numerical model developed in our previous work, the new model was simple and performing with dramatic high computational efficiency. The accuracy of the model was as well as the full numerical model. The influences of structure and operation parameters on the performances of AGDD system were discussed furtherly by employing the model. Results shown that the air-gap height, the inlet temperature and feed flow rate of hot stream could be regarded as the strong parameters effected significantly on the performances of the system in comparison with the air-gap thickness and inlet temperature and salt concentration of cold stream. Therefore, these strong parameters should be considered firstly for improving the heat and mass transfer of AGDD.

中文翻译：

---

ε-NTU法评价气隙扩散精馏传热传质

摘要 采用有效传递单元数（e-NTU）方法建立了气隙扩散蒸馏（AGDD）的传热传质模型。在该模型中，气隙中蒸汽的潜热传递被视为等效的对流传热，以与 NTU 建立关系。与我们之前工作中开发的完整数值模型相比，新模型简单且具有极高的计算效率。该模型的精度与完整的数值模型一样。应用该模型进一步讨论了结构和运行参数对AGDD系统性能的影响。结果表明，气隙高度，与冷流的气隙厚度、入口温度和盐浓度相比，热流的入口温度和进料流量可被视为对系统性能影响显着的强参数。因此，为了改善AGDD的传热传质，应首先考虑这些强参数。