THE present work is deeply indebted to the fundamental expositions of mass transfer by Colburn and Drew (1937), Bird et al. (1960), and Spalding (1960, 1963). Their influences will be noticed throughout. More recent fundamental research into vapour transport has been conducted by Rosenberger and coworkers (Olson & Rosenberger 1979b; Markham & Rosenberger 1980; Abernathy & Rosenberger 1981; Greenwell et al. 1981; Jhaveri et al. 1981; Jhaveri & Rosenberger 1982; Rosenberger & Müller 1983; Rosenberger et al. 1997), which will be examined more closely in §§3.2.3, 3.2.4, 3.3.3, 3.3.4 and 3.3.18.
The numerous parallels between the present problem and the analogous single fluid heat transfer problem (§2.4) mean that the large body of literature surrounding the latter has had great bearing, but it is too extensive to review here. Three recent reviews were listed in §2.4. The work of Jones and Furry (1946), Batchelor (1954), Ostroumov (1958) and Daniels (1985; Daniels & Wang 1994) on narrow cavities and of Mallinson and de Vahl Davis (1973, 1977; de Vahl Davis 1998) on three-dimensional effects deserves particular mention. Other references will be found in most sections of this thesis.