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G.
ALY , A. AL-HADDAD' and M. ABDEL-JAWAD' 1 Kuwait University, P.O.' Box 5969, 13060 Safat, Kuwait 2 Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, P.O. Box 24885, 13109 Safat, Kuwait
ABSTRACT A computer program "as constructed for the calculation of the heat transfer and fluid hydrodynamic characteristics of falling-film evaporation of natural seawater. The evaporator unit is provided with a recirculation loop. The heat transfer surface is divided into small segments where local heat transfer coefficients are calculated using correlations for different flow regimes. The package has been optimized with respect to convergence, accuracy and CPU time consumption. A parametric study "as conducted to investigate the effect of such process variables as feed conditions, steam temperature, circulation ratio, boiling temperature and fouling thermal resistance. The results of an extensive sensitivity analysis indicate that the evaporation process is more sensitive to changes in the thickness of the scale layer and live steam temperature and less sensitive to changes in feed temperature.
INTRODUCTION Distillation of seawater in multiple falling-film evaporators is an establish ed technique to produce salt-free water. The heat transfer area usually
consists of a bundle of long vertical tubes, on the inside surface of which a thin liquid film flows down under gravity in an annular type of flow. The
thermal energy source is often the exhaust steam extracted from the low-pressure stage of a steam power plant. The vapor generated in one effect condenses on
the outside surface of the tubes in the next effect, causing seawater inside the tubes to boil. 1n such evaporators, the temperature differences necessary to
maintain a certain heat flux from the condensing steam to the boiling seawater can be kept small. This is particularly important to seawater desalination
plants where a large number of effects are incorporated or vapor pressure techniques are applied. Furthermore, the boiling mechanism becomes generally
one of evaporation at the liquid-vapor interface without formation of vapor bubbles on the heating surface. Falling-film evaporators are characterized by high heat transfer coefficients, short residence time of the falling liquid film, small liquid hold-up and relatively small pressure drops. That is why falling-film evaporation is widely
applied not only for seawater desalination but also in all branches of the chemical industry, as well as in the pharmaceutical, food, and pulp and paper
OOll-9X4/87/$03.50
44 industries. This paper describes a computer program specially designed to provide some insight into the heat transfer and fluid dynamic characteristics of fallingfilm evaporation of natural seawater. The program can be used for parametric
THE MATHEMATICAL MODEL The evaporator unit considered in this study is schematically shown in Fig.1. A fraction of the concentrated brine can be circulated if necessary. does not account for the pressure drop over the heat transfer surface. The model Conden-
sate streams are assumed to be saturated, and only smooth heated surfaces (tubes and plates) are considered. Finally, surface evaporation is assumed to prevail.
Fig. 2 shows the physical model of the evaporator and the coordinate system. The temperature profiles in the bulk of heating steam, condensate film, tube wall, liquid film and the bulk of the generated vapor are also illustrated. The hydrodynamics of falling films can be divided into three flow regimes: laminar flow, wavy-laminar flow and turbulent flow. There are two main mechaSurface evapora-
tion occurs at low heat fluxes while bubble formation, i.e., nucleate boiling, takes place at high heat fluxes. most falling-film evaporators. The surface evaporation regime is dominant in In this regime, the local heat transfer coeffi-
Heat Transfer Correlations With respect to the boiling temperature at the prevailing pressure inside the evaporator, the seawater fed to the liquid distributors above the upper edge of the heat transfer bundle may be subcooled, saturated or superheated. For a
subcooled feed, two distinct convective heat transfer regions can be defined within the evaporator length: a thermal developing region and a fully developed region. In the thermal developing region, where no evaporation occurs, all heat
transferred across the tube wall is utilized to preheat the-seawater to its boiling temperature. zone. That is why this region is sometimes called the preheating
The local heat transfer coefficient in this zone will generally be higher This is analogous to the case of
single phase convective heat transfer in pipes, where the heat transfer coefficient is substantially higher near the entrance than further downstream. There
are a number of heat transfer correlations reported in the literature (refs.l-3) to calculate the liquid-side heat transfer coefficient in the preheating zone. The VDI correlations (ref. 3) were adopted in this work.
In the fully developed region , convective heat transfer leads to evaporation at the liquid-vapor interface as mentioned earlier. Chun and Seban (ref. 4)
45
-I
II
, 1
46
developed the following model for heat transfer to evaporating liquid films on smooth vertical tubes: For laminar flow: Nu = 1.1 Re-lj3 For wavy-laminar flow: Nu = 0.825 Re-2'g For turbulent flow: Nu = 3.e* lo-3 Reom4 Pro.65 (3) (2) (1)
The first equation is the well-known Nusselt equation for film condensation (ref. 5). The second equation, which is based on the work of Zazuli (ref. 6),
assumes that the effective film thickness is reduced by the action of capillary waves and ripples. with eqn. (1). &ban The net effect is an increase in heat transfer in comparison
The intersection of eqns. (1) and (2) yields a pseudo-transition Reynolds IlUmber: (Re)lam - w.lam = 2.43 Ka where Ka = Kapitza number = po3/gn4 The intersection of eqns. (2) and (3) gives the second pseudo-transition Reynolds number: (Re)rlam-tub = 5800 Px-~.'~ (6) (5) l/11 (4)
Eqns. (5) and (6) should not be regarded as an actual indication of the transition from one flow regime to another, but only as the point of transition from one correlation to the other in order to facilitate the numerical simulations. There are other heat transfer correlations for the turbulent flow regime (refs. 7-10). However, the Chun-Seban model was adopted in this work.
THE COMPUTER PROGRAM The total length of the heat transfer areas is divided into a number of segments N. Within each segment, the physical properties of the liquid and the It is obvious that the greater the Fig. 3 shows
the first three segments,' the first of which is used as an updating segment. The input data fed to the package include the feed conditions, saturation temperature of live steam, pressure of the separator, circulation ratio, geometric data of the heat transfer surface, thickness of deposits and thermal conductivities of the metal and deposits. Following the initiation phase in
which input data are checked and initial values are assigned to some process variables, the program compares the feed temperature with the boiling temperature corresponding to the separator pressure. If the feed is subcooled, it will If the feed The evapo-
ration calculations begin in the subsequent segments unless the feed enters the evaporator already at its saturation temperature. used in the preheating zone. The WI correlations are
are also used throughout the whole surface area to calculate the condensateside heat transfer coefficient.
Fig. 3
48
The calculations are iterative within each segment and over the evaporator itself. The different iteration loops contain three parameters that check for
'q' parameters equal to 10-5 and the number of segments equal to 50.
runs were then executed to determine the optimum values of these four parameters that yield a reasonable level of accuracy in an acceptable computer time. results of these runs gave the following values:
E
The
= 10-3 ct = 5*10-z
= 10-z N = is
x q
The same procedure was repeated to optimize a number of relaxation variables. The final results of these runs gave the following allowable errors for process variables: flow rate concentration temperature heat flux/transfer coefficient f 0.001 kg/s + 0.001 wt. fraction + 0.01 oc
f 0.5 W/m2.k
The package includes a comprehensive data base for calculating the physical properties of the liquid such as dynamic viscosity, density, thermal conductivity, boiling point elevation, specific heat capacity, and surface tension. These properties are calculated as functions of concentration and temperature for a number of liquids such as natural seawater, black liquor, sugar solutions and skim milk. data base. A special algorithm (ref. 11) is used to accelerate the convergence within the different loops of the package. The thermodynamic properties of steam are also included in the
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The program was tested for both smooth tubes and smooth plates. Both surface
configurations have the same behavior as far as heat transfer and fluid dynamics are concerned. Because of lack of space, only the results for evaporation of
seawater on vertical smooth tubes are presented here. To study the influence of process variables on the overall heat transfer coefficient analyzed. (U value), numerous sensitivity analysis runs were executed and The process variables studied and the numerical intervals investigaThe geometrical data of the evaporator tube The number of tubes was 71 with dia-
meters between 34 and 29 mm, length of 3.0 m and thermal conductivity of 238 W/I&, which represents an average value for the most common scale materials
49
encountered
in seawater
desalination.
TABLE
Sensitivity
Variable
Unit
step
0.05 5 1.0 2.0 0.1 0.1 0.05 kg/s OC Wt.% OC bar mm
Feed rate Feed temperature Feed concentration Steam temperature Separator pressure Circulation ratio Deposits thickness
of each variable
on the behavior
of the evaporation
process
below.
Feed Flow Rate The feed flow rate F was changed the flow regime wavy-laminar. from 0.4 to 1.0 kg/s. Within this interval,
side of the tubes turned out to be decreases, since the hold-up across the
difference
Rewriting
in the form:
= 0 . 825(
X3gp2/w2,1/3 (4r/P)-2'g
clear that the local heat transfer decrease when coefficients load, on both
it becomes tubes
the liquid
r, increases. affect
be emphasized according
in liquid viscosity
would
greatly
to eqn.
is denounced
on the U value
is shown in Fig. 4.
Feed Temperature The feed temperature and superheating very little cases. was changed from 75 to llOC to cover both heat transfer coefficient subcooling increases
(l-2%) within
number.
The liquid
film will
Consequently, interval as
x
Y
Ni .
3
-I
NE
3
a >
I 3
== 4000 2
aJ I3
aJ-
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
Is
Fig. 5
30101 75
I 85
95
105
Feed
Fig. 4
flow
rate,
kg
Feed
u value as a function
temperature,
of feed temperature.
U value as a function
51
Feed Concentration The feed concentration wide concentration unit. Within X was changed from 3.5 to 10.5 wt.%, which in a multiple-effect covers the
encountered liquid
evaporation
this interval,
flow regime.
load
liquid
concentration
of brine
viscosity
and
Since decreases with an increase in feed concentration, the condensate aL flow rate will decrease as a result of a decreasing heat flux q. Since the condensate X increases flow regime is also wavy-laminar, then uC will increase by 6.5% as
at X = 10.5 wt.%).
increase
as shown in Fig. 6.
Steam Temperature The steam temperature difference was changed At of 6-20C from 106 to 12OOC. This would give a The This the
relative
the liquid
film flow is in the wavy-laminar (from 5309 W/&K film load will
regime,
then aL will
increase
as At The Conseresults
uc will decrease
t increases.
almost
constant
The maximum
is 1.5% within
investigated.
Pressure
of the Separator of the separator P was changed from 0.5 to 1.5 bar. This The
to a saturation difference,
temperature
of pure water of 81.9 to 111.4'C. flux, will decrease will decrease in a decrease
increases.
increase.
dL decreased
This would
as P increases. at P = 1.5
condensate
as P increases.
This would at
in an increase
it first
in the separator.
3220
, , , , ,,
, , , , , , , , ,
3175
NE
3125
a
'r 3075
-J
3180 ' 11 4 3
11 5
11 6
' 1 '1 7 8
,
1 ' 11 9 IO
30251 106
I 110
I 114
I 118
Feed
Fig. 6
concentration
wt *lo
Fig. 7
Saturation
U value ture.
U value as a function
of feed concentration.
as a function
53
54
Circulation Ratio The circulation ratio (R=FR/F) was changed from 0.0 to 0.7. The average
liquid load will increase when R increases, and this will obviously have the same effect as with the feed flow rate. R increases, as shown in Fig. 9. The U value will therefore decrease a!
Fouling Resistance A fouling layer was simulated with a thickness range of 0.0 - 0.8 mm. is to be compared with the tube wall thickness of 2.5 mm. drastically deteriorate as illustrated in Fig. 10. In conclusion the sensitivity analysis runs revealed that the falling-film evaporator simulated was more sensitive to changes in the thickness of a scale layer and in live steam temperature, and less sensitive to changes in feed temperature. This
NE2700
3
a~- 23M 3 2 1 ' 19oc
1500
0.2
__
0.4
0.6
0.8
Thickness
Fig. 10
of deposits,
mm
55
REFERENCES mAdams, Heat Transmission, McGraw-Hill Co., 3rd ed., 1954. M.N. Chepurnoy, V.E. Shnayaer and A.D. Berkuta, Heat Transfer in turbulent flow of liquid films over vertical surfaces, Heat Transfer Soviet Research, E(l), 62, 1976. VDI-Heat Atlas, 2nd ea., VDI-Verlag, Dusseldorf, 1974'. K.R. Chun and R.A. &ban, Heat transfer to evaporating liquid films, J. of Heat Transfer, Trans. ASME, 93C. 391-396, 1971. W. Nusselt, Die Oberflachenkonaensation aes Wasserdamp fes., 2. vD1 60, 541546, 1916. R. Zazuli in S.S. Kutadeladze, Fundamentals of Heat Transfer, Arnold, London, 1963. A.E. Dukler, Fluid mechanics and heat transfer in vertical falling-film systems, Chem. Eng. Prog. Symp. Ser. 30, l-20, 1960. H. Struve, Heat transfer in a rising liquid film, VDI-Forschungsheft 534, 1969. V.N. Murthy and P.K. Sarma, The Canadian Journal of them. Eng., 55, 732, 1977. 1U G. Schnabel and E.U. Schlunder, VT Verfahrenstechnik, 14(Z), 79-83, 1980. 11 A. Jernqvist, ADJUST-An adaptive convergence algorithm for general trial and error computations, Report No. 75-F-1, Dept. of Chem. Eng. I, Lund University, Sweden, 1975.
W.H.