Simulation of the diffusion process of NaCl and KCl in olive pulp using the finite element method

The simultaneous diffusion of inorganic components in the olive pulp in wet brine was modeled based on Fick’s generalized 2^nd Law and simulated using the finite element method. The main and crossed diffusion coefficients, the film coefficient and the Biot number were determined, with the application of the simplex optimization method, through the minimization of the percentage errors. The errors between the simulated and experimental data were 5.35% for NaCl and 4.77% for KCl and the adjusted main diffusion coefficients were 0.4358 × 10^-12 m² s^-1 for NaCl and 0.5408 × 10^-12 m² s^-1 for KCl. The system developed to simulate diffusion allows the control and modulation of the salts content that diffuses through the olive pulp.

Keywords:
Fick’s law; simplex optimization; multicomponent diffusion