A Heat Exchanger with Water Vapor Condensation on the External Surface of a Vertical Pipe

Abstract

The paper is concerned with water vapor condensation on vertical pipes. The vertical position of pipes in a condenser is not discussed very often. Its application has a number of particularities in terms of the numerical determination of heat transfer. In the first stage of this paper, the authors focus on the experimental identification of heat transfer during vapor condensation on vertical pipes with a diameter of 14.0 × 1.0 mm. The pipes are placed in a narrow channel and the steam flows around them in a perpendicular direction. Two channel widths were tested, i.e., 20.0 and 24.0 mm. In the second stage, numerical modelling (CFD) is used for a detailed identification of the vapor velocity fields near the pipes. In the third stage, the results of the experimental measurements and numerical modelling are compared with data published by various authors. There are studies in the literature dealing with axial flow around vertical pipes; however, the associated results are based on conditions which are distinct from those applied in our study. The outcome of this paper is the specification of the heat transfer coefficient and the calculation formulas precisely describing the studied condenser configuration.

Keywords

• condensation
• water vapor
• heat exchanger
• heat transfer
• cross flow
• vertical tubes