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Effect of vapor condensation on forced convection heat transfer of moistened gas

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Abstract

The forced convection heat transfer with water vapor condensation is studied both theoretically and experimentally when wet flue gas passes downwards through a bank of horizontal tubes. Extraordinarily, discussions are concentrated on the effect of water vapor condensation on forced convection heat transfer. In the experiments, the air–steam mixture is used to simulate the flue gas of a natural gas fired boiler, and the vapor mass fraction ranges from 3.2 to 12.8%. By theoretical analysis, a new dimensionless number defined as augmentation factor is derived to account for the effect of condensation of relatively small amount of water vapor on convection heat transfer, and a consequent correlation is proposed based on the experimental data to describe the combined convection–condensation heat transfer. Good agreement can be found between the values of the Nusselt number obtained from the experiments and calculated by the correlation. The maximum deviation is within ±6%. The experimental results also shows that the convection–condensation heat transfer coefficient increases with Reynolds number and bulk vapor mass fraction, and is 1∼3.5 times that of the forced convection without condensation.

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Abbreviations

A :

heat transfer area (m2)

c p :

specific heat at constant pressure (J/(kg K))

d :

tube outer diameter (m)

D :

diffusion coefficient (m2/s)

g m :

mass transfer coefficient (kg/(m2 s)

h :

heat transfer coefficient (W/(m2 K))

H fg :

latent heat of condensation (kJ/kg)

m :

mass flow rate (kg/s)

m′ ′:

interfacial condensate flux (kg/(m2 s)

Nu :

Nusselt number hd/λ

P :

pressure (Pa)

Pr :

Prandtl number

q :

heat flux (W/m2)

Q :

heat transferred (W)

Re :

Reynolds number (ud/v)

Sc :

Schmidt number

Sh :

Sherwood number (g m d/ρ D)

T :

temperature (°C)

W :

mass fraction

ρ:

density (kg/m3)

b:

bulk

c:

cooling water

conv:

convection

cond:

condensation

g:

bulk vapor–gas mixture

i:

interface

nc:

non-condensable gas

pc:

pure component

sat:

saturation

tot:

total

w:

outer tube wall

v:

vapor

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xian, 710049, China

    Yongbin Liang, Defu Che & Yanbin Kang

Authors
  1. Yongbin Liang
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  2. Defu Che
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  3. Yanbin Kang
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Correspondence to Defu Che.

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Liang, Y., Che, D. & Kang, Y. Effect of vapor condensation on forced convection heat transfer of moistened gas. Heat Mass Transfer 43, 677–686 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-006-0148-0

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