Film condensation

Fim condensation and drop condensation

The condensation involves the change of a vapor phase to a liquid phase.

Vapor subcooling is required to induce the nucleation of droplets in condensation.

If the condensate forms a continuous film, then it is called film-wise condensation

(or simply, film condensation), which occurs on wetted surfaces.

In drop-wise condensation (or simply, drop condensation), the vapor condenses

into small liquid droplets of different sizes that coalesce and fall down the cooled
surface, and it occurs on non-wetted surfaces.

Drop condensation offers less thermal resistance, and this results in heat transfer
coefficients as much as 5 to 10 times the values in film condensation.

Though drop condensation would be preferred to film condensation, it is difficult to

achieve or maintain drop condensation.

Much of the recent research focuses on promoting drop condensation using

microstructured surfaces. There is a lack of reliable theories of drop condensation.
Nusslet’s theory of film condensation
Assumptions

1. The condensate flow in the film is laminar.

2. The plate temperature, Tw, is uniform and less than the vapor saturation
temperature, Tsat.

3. The fluid properties are constant.

4. Negligible shear stress at the liquid-vapor interface.

5. Momentum changes in the film are negligible.

6. The heat transfer across the film is by conduction only, and the condensate
temperature profile is linear.
Film condensation on a vertical plate
Integrating the above twice and applying the boundary conditions u = 0 at y = 0, and

at y = δ, the velocity profile becomes

 From the above two equations,

On integrating the above equation with the boundary condition δ = 0 at x = 0,

Therefore,

All liquid properties in the above equation are best evaluated at the mean film

temperature
Although the above equation for the heat transfer coefficient has been derived for a
vertical flat plate, the expression can also be used for film condensation on the
inside or outside surfaces of a vertical tube provided the radius is large compared
with the film thickness at the bottom of the tube.
 For an inclined flat plate that makes an angle θ with the horizontal,

From energy balance,

Therefore, the average heat transfer coefficient as a function of the condensate flow rate at
the bottom of the plate is
 The film Reynolds number at the bottom of the plate is

Assuming

Experimental data suggests that the wave-free laminar regime exists at the bottom of the

plate for
where parameter φ is

Then,
The equations are recommended for different flow regimes at the bottom of the plate are

Wave-free laminar:

Laminar-wavy (Kutateladze, 1963):

Turbulent (Labuntsov, 1957):

As an improvement to the Nusselt theory, Rohsenow (1956) considered
thermal advection effects and non-linear temperature profile across the
film and showed that the latent heat of vaporization, hfg, should be
changed to

The Nusselt theory neglects the shear at the liquid-vapor interface, which
becomes significant for condensation with flowing vapor. The interfacial
shear is an important factor that influences the heat transfer coefficient
for condensation in tubes.
Film condensation on horizontal tubes
In surface condensers, condensation occurs on a bank of horizontal tubes.

Nusselt derived the following mean heat

transfer coefficient expression for laminar film
condensation on the outside surface of a single
horizontal tube:
 For a vertical column of N horizontal tubes, Jakob (1936) proposed
the following mean heat transfer coefficient relationship:

is the mean heat transfer coefficient for N tubes.

The expression for mean heat transfer coefficient for the Nth tube in the column, hDN ,
is

hD1 is the mean heat transfer coefficient for the first tube.
Kern (1958) recommended the following correlations for