Adv. Studies Theor. Phys., Vol. 6, 2012, no.

22, 1065 - 1076

Numerical Study in Condensing of Methanol

Vapor in a Vertical Tube by Mixed Convection

in the Presence of Non-condensable Gas

Y. Belkassmi

Team of vapouring in fluid mechanics and environment, LPT, URAC 13 Faculty

of sciences, Mohammed V University, Rabat-Agdal B.P. 1014, Rabat, Morocco
y.belkassmi@gmail.com

K. Gueraoui

Team of vapouring in fluid mechanics and environment, LPT, URAC 13 Faculty

of sciences, Mohammed V University, Rabat-Agdal B.P. 1014, Rabat, Morocco

Department of mechanical engineering, Ottawa University, Canada

kgueraoui@yahoo.fr

N. Hassanain

Team of magnetic materials and applications, LPM, 4 Avenue Ibn Battouta

Faculty of sciences, Mohammed V University, Rabat-Agdal B.P. 1014 RP, Rabat,
Morocco

Abstract: A numerical investigation has been performed to study the combined

heat and mass transfer occurring during a film-wise condensation of methanol
vapour in the presence of a non-condensable gas (air) flowing downward inside a
vertical tube. Both liquid and gas stream are approached by two coupled laminar
boundary layer. An implicit finite difference method is employed to solve the
coupled governing equations for liquid film and gas flow together with the
interfacial matching conditions, Full set of the liquid-vapour interface conditions
was established to connect the liquid and the mixture region by the continuity of
velocity, mass flux, and temperature and heat flux. The effect of the influencing
parameters are studied so the effect of inlet Reynolds number, the effect of
temperature are illustrated.

Keywords: Condensation, Heat and mass transfers, Mixed convection, Laminar

flow, Vertical tube, Methanol vapour
1066 Y. Belkassmi, K. Gueraoui and N. Hassanain

Nomenclature

 specific heat...................... .   W ∗ dimensionless vapor mass fraction

D mass diffusivity…………... m.   " #  %/ # 
d tube width ………………...........  X coordinate along the tube…… 
g gravitational acceleration ... m.   X ∗ dimensionless coordinate
 latent heat of condensation.. .  r Coordinate normal to the tube…
  local heat transfer coefficient Greek symbols
.   .  δ thickness of condensate layer.... 
 mass flow rate.......... .   . 
 total heat flux ..................W. 
 latent heat flux ................... W. 
 sensible heat flux................ W. 
 inlet temperature………..….…. 
δ∗ dimensionless film thickness
", # , %/,
λ thermal conductivity….W.  . 
η transformed coordinate defined by
Eqs.(20) and (21)
T ∗ dimensionless temperature μ dynamic viscosity.... .   . 
" # $ %/" # $ % ρ mass density ................... . 1
u∗ dimensionless velocity in the
y-direction u/( Subscripts
I liquid-gas interface
0 condition at inlet
L liquid
G gas
w wall

1. INTRODUCTION
The study of condensation phenomenon is very important because it occurs
in many chemical and power industries. The optimization of the performance of
thermal machines composed of condenser needs to control the fundamental
thermal-hydraulic process during their functioning. And it occurs in numerous
thermal engineering applications exemplified by refrigeration, air-conditioning,
chemical engine, desalination. So the condensation occurs when vapor is cooled
below its saturation temperature and the vapor molecules undergo a phase change.
Consequently, numerous previous experimental and theoretical studies have been
made aimed at improving the understanding of the condensation process for
various duct geometries, duct orientations, and fluid properties.
Since the pioneer study of Nusselt in1916, many theoretical and
experimental works about laminar and turbulent liquid film undergoing
condensation of a pure vapor on a vertical isothermal plate, the effect of drop
pressure, convective terms and the interfacial shear was neglected. The authors
presented a theoretical investigation of laminar falling film with condensation by
natural convection plate. Results were obtained for a wide range of governing
Numerical study in condensing of methanol vapor 1067

parameters (ambient pressure, condensation and temperature). They showed, in

particular, the influence of non-condensable gas is important at lower pressure
levels. Yang investigated the condensation characteristics by natural convection
inside a vertical tube. Siow et al. presented a numerical study for the fully coupled
solution of two phase model for laminar film condensation of vapor-gas mixtures
in horizontal channels. In 2007 Siow and al, studied the effect of the
non-condensable gas on the heat transfer rate was observed to be more
pronounced at higher Froude numbers. The numerical studies are less numerous
and relatively recent, they are usually based on the simultaneous equations of
convection gas and liquid, in this area we find a bibliographical synthesis in the
study of Panday. For the experimental works conducted for the study of the
condensation of mixture of vapor and non-condensable gases inside a vertical tube,
the authors (Siddique, Hasanein, Al-Shammari, and Revankar) studied the
condensation of vapor non-condensable gases mixture inside a vertical tube on a
simplified boiling water reactor in which the second face of the condensing wall is
cooled by an external liquid flow.

This paper presents a numerical study of a film-wise condensation of

methanol vapor in presence of air along the interior wall of a vertical tube and the
walls are isotherm, the heat and mass transfers in the liquid and vapor phase are
governed respectively by classical stream, and forced convection equations.
Transfers equations are linked at the liquid vapor interface by the continuity of the
shear stress and the heat flux densities and by the heat flux density through the
wall of the tube. The equations are discretized by the finite difference method and
solved by Tomas algorithms.

2. Physical model and assumptions

The physical model is shown in fig 1. We consider a forced convection vapor

mixture flow downward inside a vertical tube of (L) height and (d) with. The
temperature of the tube is maintained at $788 , and the mixture enters the tube
with a uniform velocity ( , uniform temperature  , uniform pressure 9 and
uniform gas mass fraction : . We suppose:
1068 Y. Belkassmi, K. Gueraoui and N. Hassanain

Condensat

Fig.1 Physical Model

For the mathematical formulation of the problem, the following simplifying
assumptions are taking into consideration:
1- The liquid and gas flows are laminar, steady and two dimensional.
2- Boundary layer approximations are supposed valuable for both liquid and gas
streams.
3- The effect of the superficial tension is neglected. The gas-liquid interface is in
the thermodynamic equilibrium.
4- Humid air is an ideal mixture of methanol vapor and dry air. It is considered a
perfect gas.
5- The Soret and Duffour effects are ignored.
Under these assumptions, the equations of continuity, momentum, energy and
concentration are written in cylindrical coordinates as follows:

3. Mathematical formulations

3.1 Liquid film equations

Ccontinuity equation
;  ;
"= ( % > "@= A % B 0 (1)
;< ? ;<

Momentum equation
Numerical study in condensing of methanol vapor 1069

;CD ;CD EF  ; ;CD

= "( > A B# > I@J K > = L  (2)
;< ;< EG ? ;H ;H

Energy equation

;D ;D  ; ;D

=
F "( > A B ? ;H I@M K (3)
;< ;H ;H

3.2 Gas flow equations

Ccontinuity equation
;  ;
"=N (N % > "@=N AN % B 0 (4)
;< ? ;H

Momentum equation

;CO ;CO EF  ; ;CO

=N (N > AN B # EG > ? ;H I@JN K > =N L  (5)
;< ;< ;H

Energy equation

;O ;O  ; ;O

=N
FN "(N > AN B ? ;H I@MN K (6)
;< ;H ;H
Species equation

;$O ;$O  ; ;$
=N "(N > AN B ? ;H I@=N P K (7)
;< ;H ;H

3.3 Boundary and interfacial matching conditions

The boundary conditions for this matching are:

Q B 0 ,, (N B ( ,, N B  ,, : B : ,, 9 B 9 (8)
@BR ,, (N B A B 0 ,,  B $788 (9)
At the tube centre line, symmetry is prescribed using:
SC S S$
@ B 0 ,, S?O B 0 ,, S?O B 0 ,, S? B 0 ,, AN B 0 (10)

The solution from the liquid side gas satisfy the following interfacial matching
conditions @ B R # , :

continuities of velocity and temperature:

( "Q% B (N, B (, ,  "Q% B N, B , (11)

Continuity of shear stress:
1070 Y. Belkassmi, K. Gueraoui and N. Hassanain

SC SC
U B J K BJ K B 0 (12)
S? , S? N,

The radial velocity component :  B #=N A
WX ;Z ] S$
Such as mV B ZY \
;H V
and A B # $ S? 
\ (13)
[ ^

Heat balance at the interface implying:

S S
 \ B N \ #   (14)
S?  S? 
Where  is the latent heat of condensation, and  the condensate generation
rate.

The mass fraction at the interface

The mass fraction at the interface can be calculated using:
_` F`,^
: B _ (15)
a bFO F`,^ cd_` F`,^

Where 9 and 9e, are the total pressure and the vapor pressure at the
interface, respectively. f7 and fe are the molecular heights of air and methanol
vapor respectively.

3.4 Heat and mass transfer parameters

The total interfacial heat flux :
The local heat exchange between the air stream and the liquid film depends on
two related factors: the interfacial gradient on the side results in sensible convective
heat transfer, and the condensate mass transfer rate on the vapor result in latent heat
transfer. So the total convective heat transfer rate from the film interface to the gas
stream can be expressed as follows:
h
 B g, > , B  h? \ #    (16)
N

The local Nusselt number :
For the purpose of generalising the heat transfer results, the local Nusselt number
along the interface gas-liquid is defined as:
j l
Nu< B nk m B Nuo > Nup (17)
Y

The local Sherwood number :
We defended the local Sherwood number relief at the mass transfer coefficient
an the diffusive mass flux as :
js,t lm
Sh< B (18)
nY Wu

The cumulate rate of condensation :
x
vy w.EG
f? B (19)
_y
 Numerical study in condensing of methanol vapor 1071

Where the m is the condensate mass rate and M is the mass debit of gas at
the inlet of tub, and at every axial location, the overall mass balance in the gas flow
and liquid film should be satisfied.

The thermodynamic proprieties of the liquid film and gas are considered
variable, depending on the temperature theses proprieties are calculate from the
pure components canceled by the equations giving by Fujii and al (1977). From
the correlations the proprieties of methanol vapour and the validation of
temperature, we can say that all gas proprieties are valid in the following interval
temperature [273, 00 and 337, 85] en Kelvin.

4. Numerical method
The present conjugated problem defined by the system of equation with
the boundary and interfacial conditions is solved numerically using a finite
difference marching procedure in the downstream direction using rectangular
grids in the liquid and gas regions. So in view of the impossibility of obtaining an
analytic solution for the non-linear coupling differential equations, the numerical
solution of the governing equations (1)-(7) for the two-phase boundary layer was
obtained using a finite difference method. The axial convection terms are
approximated by the backward difference and the transversal convection and
diffusion terms are approximated by the central difference. Each system of the
finite-difference equations forms a tridiagonal matrix equation which can be
solved by the Thomas algorithm (Patankar 1980). The correction of the pressure
gradient and axial velocity profile at each axial station in order to satisfy the
global mass flow constraint is achieved using a method proposed by Raithby and
Schneider 1979. The discrete equations are resolved line by line from the inlet to
the outlet of the tube since flows under consideration are a boundary layer type.
Several grid sizes have been tested to ensure that the results are grid independent
Grid independence tests were carried out by comparing the total heat transfer for
different values of I , J and K . In light of those results all further calculations
were performed with the 131 L "81 L 31% grids this is an optimums mesh of
this study. So the grid distribution adopted in this study consists of 31, 81, and
131 nodes, respectively, in the transverse direction of the liquid region, transverse
direction of the gas region and in the axial direction.

In other way, we transformed the Cartesian z coordinates into ~ coordinate

system in this study, such that the centre line is at ~ B 0, the liquid-mixture
interface is at ~ B 1 and the wall is at ~ B 2. The equations that relate the ~
coordinate system to the z coordinate system are:

~ B 2 # "€ # @%/, for €#, @ € (20)

and
1072 Y. Belkassmi, K. Gueraoui and N. Hassanain

~N B @/"€ # ,% for 0@€#, (21)

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Computations are performed for a methanol-air mixture flowing down inside
a vertical tube. The results are relative to a vertical tube of length L=2m and
diameter 2R=0.01, the will is maintained at a constant temperature Tw=20°C , and
the calculated have been made to the following conditions: P0=1atm, T0= 50°C,
and a vapour fraction which W0 corresponding to a relative humidity of 0,8, the
results obtained are presented in figures 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7.

The figure 2, represents the profiles of the dimensionless mass fraction of

steam in the mixture, which are decreasing in particular in the center of the tube
~ B 1 , it has a growing speed of tube center to the interface ~ B 1 with a
maximum concentarion at the gas-liquid interface, it also shows that the
consentarion of the vapor increases rapidly pre interface at the beginning of
condensation, which leads to an increase of the thickness of condensate so the
relative increase in condensation rate.
Moreover, the heat flux density flux decreases fairly rapidly at the entrance
and then asymptotically approaches a limiting value in certain length. This
development results from a decrease thermal gradient along the tube (fig.3). The
figure 4 shows that the mass flow of the liquid increases along the tube because of
the simultaneous increase of the thickness of the film by condensation, so the heat
transfer leads to a mass transfer small-scale at the entrance of the tube responsible
for the increase in the thickness of the condensate and therefore increasing the
flow rate of the condensation who is disadvantaged by higher input speed of the
gas.
On the other hand the analysis of the effect of pressure on heat exchange
shows that the heat exchanging decrease fairly rapidly with the dimensional
abscissa x/L, at the entrance and then asymptotically approaches a limit value
(fig.5), this development was due to the lower temperatures and thermal gradient
along the wall. In other, the heat transfer increases with decreases from the inlet
pressure. So the low pressure inputs have an effect favoring the condensation.
This effect of pressure is due to the thermodynamic equilibrium considered in the
vapor-liquid interface that is to say that the interface temperature is dependent on
the values of pressure so the low pressures favoring the saturation vapor.
In figure 6, we also note that the rate of condensation is favored by low pressures
and Reynolds are less important, what the case with the case with P0=1atm, and
Re=500.
The synthesis of the tow figures shows that the conditions P0=1atm, Re=500
are optimal to the condensation of methanol.
We increasing the inlet temperature of the gas and we maintaining a constant
Reynolds, the thermals exchanges are always decreasing according the
dimensional abscissa, so the exchanges are important due to the increase of the
 Numerical study in condensing of methanol vapor 1073

vapor temperature and by consequently the density of vapor stream.

The figure 7, shows the variation of the local Nusselt number along of
the tube for different inlet temperature T0, it indicates that the increase in
temperature of the inlet temperature of gas by keeping constant Reynolds number,
the heat exchange is always decreasing function of the abscissa dimensionless.
Another, we note that the variation of Nusselt number increases with increasing
the inlet gas temperature along of tube then it tends to a substantially constant
value.
In fact, at the entrance the temperature difference between the gas mixture
and that the condensate is very large, so when we increasing the inlet temperature
of gas, the density of vapor gas increases and therefore the Nusselt number,
these changes appear in a similar way for both values of Reynolds number. These
results also confirm the combined effect of temperature and relative Reynolds gas
on the improvement of the condensation process.

0,98 x=0,02291 T0=50°C

x=0,08744 Tw=20°C 280
Re=500
0,84 x=0,25287 P0=50°C 245 Re=1000
x=0,60378 Re=1000 Re=1500
0,70 x=0,82266 210 T0=50°C
x=1,91895
* 0,56
Nux 175 TW=20°C
w
140 P0=1 atm
0,42
105
0,28
70
0,14
35
0,00 0
0,0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8 0,9 1,0 0 40 80 120 160 200 240 280 320 360 400
η x/d
Figure.2 Evolution of non-dimensional Figure.3 Effect Reynolds number on the
radial concentration at different points evolution of the Nusselt number

0,105
280
Re=500 Re=500
0,090 Re=1000 245 Re=1000
Re=1500
0,075 210 T0=40°C
175 TW=20°C
Mr 0,060 T0=40°C
Nux 140
P0=1 atm

TW=20°C P0=1,5atm
0,045 P0=2 atm
P0=1 atm 105
0,030
70
0,015 35

0,000 0
0,0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8 0,9 1,0 0 40 80 120 160 200 240 280 320 360 400
x/L x/d

Figure.4 Reynolds gas effect on the rate Figure.5 Effect of inlet pressure on the
of concentration evolution of local Nusselt number.
 1074 Y. Belkassmi, K. Gueraoui and N. Hassanain

0,24 495
Re= 500 Re=500
0,21 Re= 1000 440 Re=1000
0,18 385
Tw=20°C
330 T0=40°C
0,15 P0=1 atm
275 T0=50°C
Mr 0,12 P0=1 atm
Nux T0=60°C
220
0,09
P0=1,5 atm 165
0,06
110
0,03 P0=2 atm
55
0,00
0,0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8 0,9 1,0 0
0 40 80 120 160 200 240 280 320 360 400
x/L
x/d

Figure.6 Effect of inlet pressure on Figure.7 Effect of inlet temperature of

the rate of condensation evolution of the Nusselt number
Numerical study in condensing of methanol vapor 1075

6. CONCLUSIONS
The condensation of methanol vapor and thermal transfer heat and mass is
studied numerically in a vertical tube in mixed convection with an isothermal wall.
The effect of influential parameters was examined. We have shown that, in the
condensation of a film methanol vapor, the heat transfer decreases along the tube
wall, and the condensation is accompanied by a relative lowering of the
temperature of the vapor phase and interface. In other, the rate of condensation of
the methanol vapor is enhanced by Reynolds numbers less important, and by low
pressure inlet, and by low temperatures imposed on the wall.

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Received: April, 2012