Solution method for a class of heat and mass transfer problems in a heterogeneous system

Many heat and mass transfer problems in a heterogeneous system can be unified and treated in a simple way. Every problem belonging to this class addresses either the transfer of heat-mass in a heterogeneous medium consisting of several phases or the transfer of heat-mass in a multicomponent system. The problem formulation involves a self- adjoint operator consisting of three coefficient matrices and a Sturm-Liouville differential operator resulting from heat-mass diffusion. A solution method based on linear operator theory is proposed to gain solutions to this class of heat and mass transfer problems. The properties of the self-adjoint operator are analysed and applied to obtain theoretical insight to the influence of the parameters on the solution.