International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 170 (2021) 121016

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/hmt

Investigation of the heat transfer coefficient during the condensation

of small quantities of water vapour from a mixture with a high
proportion of non-condensable gas in a horizontal smooth tube
Michael Gundermann a, Florian Raab b, Daniel Raab c, Tilman W. Botsch a,∗
a
Faculty of Process Engineering, Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm, Wassertorstrasse 10, Nürnberg 90489, Germany
b
Nuremberg Campus of Technology, Research Group Distributed Energy Conversion and Storage, Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm, Fürther
Straße 246b, Nürnberg 90429, Germany
c
Aprovis Energy Systems GmbH, Weidenbach 91746, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: During heat recovery of exhaust gas energy in a shell and tube heat exchanger, the exhaust gas is cooled
Received 31 August 2020 down and the water vapour content may condense when the corresponding temperature is reached. In
Revised 18 January 2021
this case, a condensation heat exchanger allows recovering the latent heat in addition to the sensible heat
Accepted 21 January 2021
and is therefore beneficial for a preferably high heat recovery. The database and algorithms for the design
of this kind of apparatus are still nowadays quite week because only little experimental work is realized
Keywords: with condensation of water vapour from a mixture with a very high proportion of non-condensable gas in
Condensation horizontal tubes. The actual research work improves this database with a considerable amount of exper-
Non-condensable gas imental data and proposes a correlation for the prediction of the heat transfer coefficient in an exhaust
Heat transfer correlation
gas heat exchanger in which parts of the gas humidity condense. All experiments were carried out under
Inside horizontal tube
conditions, which are typical for this kind of heat exchangers, hence the presented results can be used for
Heat exchangers
Flue gas the design of condensation heat exchangers in industrial heat transfer systems. A gas inlet temperature
of 120 °C, a range of the air-steam mixture Reynolds number 11,0 0 0  Re  31,0 0 0, three tube lengths
between 1.87 m and 3.04 m, water vapour volume fractions of 7 % to 14.5 % as well as tube diame-
ters of 22 mm and 28 mm were selected to derive the correlation. Furthermore, additional tube lengths
(0.574 m, 0.973 m, 1.373 m) were investigated to determine the parameters influencing the condensation
rate and comprehensive location profiles over the tube length. A correlation for a correction factor fC is
derived, which enables to calculate the increase of the heat transfer coefficient due to condensation from
the dry heat transfer coefficient without condensation. This dry heat transfer coefficient is calculated by
the measured values in the inlet and outlet for a purely dry air-steam mixture cooling without conden-
sation. The correction factor fC depend on the water vapour volume fraction, the Reynolds number and
the geometry ratio between the inner diameter and the tube length.
© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

1. Introduction
Exhaust gas heat exchangers use the waste heat of combined
heat and power units. The energy of the exhaust gas is recovered
to generate either saturated steam, high-temperature water or low-
temperature water for industrial as well as domestic heating appli-
cations. Due to the increasing demand for higher efficiency, more
economical design and a maximum heat recovery, in certain cases
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: tilman.botsch@th-nuernberg.de (T.W. Botsch).
two staged heat exchangers are used with a condensation heat
exchanger in the second stage. Exhaust gas contains a small but
non-negligible amount of water vapour and thus a large quantity
of latent energy. This water vapour is generated during the com-
bustion reaction of carbon-based energy sources such as natural
gas, diesel fuel or biogenic fuels [1]. The energy released by the
phase transition from the gaseous to the liquid aggregate state has
a great influence on the total energy transferred, as the example
in Fig. 1 shows. By doubling the condensing water vapour content,
the relative share of gas cooling in the total energy decreases very
strongly, while its absolute value remains almost the same. The

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2021.121016
0017-9310/© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
M. Gundermann, F. Raab, D. Raab et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 170 (2021) 121016

Nomenclature M˙ mass flow rate

Q˙ heat transfer rate
Abbreviations q˙ mean heat flux
V DI Verein deutscher Ingenieure X water load
NCG Non-condensable gas, air h enthalpy
HT C heat transfer coefficient E˙ energy flow rate
LMT D log mean temperature difference L tube length
PV C polyvinyl chloride x location coordinate along tube length
P ET polyethylene terephthalate y water vapour volume fraction
w velocity
Dimensionless Numbers
cp specific isobaric heat capacity
Re Reynolds number
k total heat transfer coefficient
Nu Nusselt number
A heat transfer area
Pr Prandtl number
M molar mass
Gz Graetz number
s wall thickness
Greek Symbols
ϕ humidity
ζ pressure loss coefficient amount of energy released by the condensation nearly doubles the
ν kinematic viscosity total recovered energy.
η absolute viscosity Models and correlations from literature could not be used for
ρ density the calculation of the inner heat transfer coefficient (HTC) of air-
α heat transfer coefficient steam mixtures with a high fraction of non condensable gas (NCG)
λ heat conductivity and condensation in a horizontal tube. These models are accurate
weighting factor for substance data for the condensation of pure vapour or vapour mixtures with only
ξ mass fraction small amounts of non-condensable gas, as Huang et al. [2] showed
ϑ temperature in their review paper. Standard industrial software used for the
design of exhaust gas condensers determines the total heat trans-
Subscripts fer rate with satisfactory accuracy, while the condensate mass flow
C correction rate and the outlet temperature are not predicted precisely. In ad-
h hydraulic dition, the software does not calculate the temperature change and
W water the heat transfer coefficient using the standard equations listed in
in inlet this paper. Therefore an extra experimental determination is re-
out outlet quired which measures gas cooling and condensation separately
con condensation, condensate and allows to determine the real inner heat transfer coefficient.
mix air-water vapour mixture A correction factor fC based on the measured data in this paper
Ev water vapour from evaporator is presented and can be multiplied with the so-called dry heat
τ dew point transfer coefficient to consider the enhancement of the inner heat
exp determined experimentally transfer coefficient, due to the additional latent heat released dur-
th determined theoretically ing cooling and condensation.
CW cooling water The main subject of this research work is to show which pa-
m log mean rameters influence the condensation and to quantify the influence.
mid middle The experimental and theoretical examination of the heat trans-
o outer fer during in-tube condensation in a horizontal tube finally aims
i inner to determine a correction function for the calculation of the heat
tot total transfer coefficient for the mentioned condenser application and
Gn Gnielinski the typical parameter range of exhaust gas heat exchangers. This
dry dry condition correction function allows the precise determination of the inner
WV water vapour heat transfer coefficient and therefore a much better apparatus de-
AW, WA Air-Water, Water-Air sign than the actual standard.
A air
R specific gas constant 2. Literature review
amb ambient
sat saturated As first accurate literature overview about the condensation
Superscripts mechanism and the types of condensation in the presence of non-
o outer tube condensable gas the review of Huang et al. [2] can be recom-
G gaseous state mended. The research goes back to documents of the early 20th
L liquid state century, in which the first consideration of the influences on heat
∗ adjusted, annular gap transfer while condensation were outlined. Over the last century
researchers all over the world carried out many experimental and
Symbols theoretical studies about steam condensation. Mostly, steam flows
d diameter with low NCG content are investigated, because it has been re-
r radius peatedly found, that the change in the heat transfer coefficient
dO outer diameter, inner tube is significant when the NCG content increases. Numerous mea-
di inner diameter, inner tube suring arrangements with different tubes, tube inclinations, sur-
faces and non-condensable gases were experimentally investigated.

2
M. Gundermann, F. Raab, D. Raab et al.
Fig. 1. Share of energy of gas cooling and condensation during cooling of an air-water vapour mixture from 120 °C to 50 °C depending on the steam volume fraction -
L = 3.04 m and dO = 28 mm tube.
Huang et al. [2] gives a tabulated summary about the experimental
data captured over the last decades and their characteristics. Most
literature about condensation deals with pure vapour or vapour
with small amounts of non-condensable gas. In the latter case the
degradation of the heat transfer coefficient due to the presence of
non condensable gas is examined. Among the literature the degra-
dation factors are defined as the ratio of heat transfer coefficients
with and without condensation. Correlations were determined by
Lee and Kim [3], Kuhn [4] and Vierow [5] and listed in tabular form
in [2]. The basis for Vierow’s correlation is the heat transfer co-
efficient at pure steam flow, which degrades due to an increasing
NCG-fraction. The research work relates the theoretically calculated
heat transfer coefficient of pure steam flow to the experimentally
determined heat transfer coefficient. The correction function deter-
mined by Vierow in [5] depends on the Reynolds number and the
NCG fraction. In comparison to Vierow, additional parameters are
considered in the presented paper and instead of the NCG fraction,
the influence of the water vapour fraction is taken into account in
the correlation. Like in most publications, the view is orientated
on the direction of the steam flow, which has gaseous components
with heat transfer inhibiting effects. Only three publications [6–
8] describe experiments with mixtures with a high proportion of
NCG, but only vertical tubes are examined.
In summary the investigations consolidated by Huang et al. [2].
are not suitable for an comparison of the presented tube condi-
tions, experimental arrangements and results. A specific selection
of a SCOPUS research delivered a total of 367 results published
since the year 1980. After a first pre-selection, titles and abstracts
of 159 search results have been manually reviewed to detect the
publications, that deal predominantly with the condensation of
water vapour from a mixture of non-condensable gas inside a hor-
izontal tube. Exactly 147 of 159 publications were classified as not
relevant for the present research work.
The thermodynamic design of exhaust gas heat exchangers
bases mainly on heat transfer equations and thermodynamic bal-
ances. Equations for calculating the parameters for heat transfer
processes during pure gas cooling, pure steam and steam-mixtures
with a small inert gas fraction already exist. These are collected in
well-established literature such as the VDI Heat Atlas [9] or Baehr
and Stephan [10]. Gorpinyaka et al. [11] developed a model de-
3
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 170 (2021) 121016
scribing the condensation of a vapour-gas mixture in tubes. The
simulated results are in satisfactory agreement with the experi-
ments, but the parameter range does only partly include the scope
of this paper. Another research was done by Kral [12] in the field of
horizontal steam generators of pressurized water reactors in tran-
sient and accident conditions in 2015. The heat transfer coefficient
is shown as a function of the tube slope and the air mass fraction.
Air mass fractions of up to 25 % are considered, which again does
not include the scope of this paper. Caruso et al. [13,14] examined
the reduction of condenser performance and efficiency, caused by
non-condensable gases flowing with water vapour, in 2012 and
2013. The potency equations for predicting the Nusselt number are
derived from the mixture Reynolds number, the Reynolds num-
ber of the condensate flow and the local NCG mass fraction. These
correlations cannot be applied to the problem in the present re-
search work, as this paper, in contrast, considers twice as large in-
let NCG fractions and totally horizontal tubes. In 2014 and 2015
Ren et al. [15,16] carried out a fairly similar investigation about the
effect of non-condensable gas, inlet pressure, tube lengths and a
wide range of high mixture Reynolds numbers (50,0 0 0 - 190,0 0 0)
on the heat transfer coefficient experimentally and theoretically.
But data from their selected parameter range are not applicable
for the design of exhaust gas heat exchangers.
Two papers of Huang et al.’s [2] literature list deal with the
condensation of water vapour from flue gas and are slightly com-
parable to the present research work. The first paper, published by
Chantana and Kumar [17] in 2013, accounts almost the same range
of Reynolds numbers (4,600 - 14,000), inlet temperatures (130 -
150 °C) and dew points (41 - 56 °C). The experimental setup, how-
ever, is fundamentally different, because a vertical double pipe is
investigated, in which the air-water vapour mixture flows in the
annular gap. Nevertheless the motivation also is the recovery of
latent heat from moist flue gas. They report that the flue gas of
a combustion of natural gas contains about 15 % latent heat at
a water vapour content of 10 to 20 %. It is also mentioned that
the HTC is 1 to 3.5 times higher than that of convection without
condensation, which was determined by Che et al. [18] and Liang
et al. [19]. The authors conducted several experiments, presented a
model as well as a Nusselt correlation and compared the predicted
temperatures with experimental data of Kuhn [20]. The model,
M. Gundermann, F. Raab, D. Raab et al.
which is based on an iterative solution and a division of the tube
in small elements, has an error towards the experiments of only
5 %. The Nusselt correlation is based on a potency function with
the Reynolds number and the water vapour mass fraction, as typi-
cal for this case of heat transfer problems. This correlation again
cannot be applied to the present problem, because it does only
consider vertical tubes and another range of the mixture Reynolds
number. The second paper by Zhu et al. [8] presents also an inves-
tigation of a vertical tube with an air-water vapour mixture in the
annular gap, which is applied in dewvaporation desalination pro-
cesses. In contrast to Chantana and Kumar [17], the tube lengths
were varied additionally. The selected range of the Reynolds num-
ber is 500 to 50 0 0 and the inlet temperature is set between 68 to
92 °C, which differs again from the present research. Further in this
field of research, a paper by Zeynali et al. [21] shows the influence
of twisted tape in a tube on wet flue gas condensation and gives
an empirical correlation, which predicts the condensation ratio as a
function of vapour volume fraction, vapour saturation temperature
and wall temperature. The condensation ratio is defined as the ra-
tio between condensate mass flow rate and the total water vapour
flow rate.
Comparable research work in the field of condensation of water
vapour from humid air was done by Liu et al. [22] in 2017. Be-
neath some sampling data, the authors present a correlation for
determining the ratio between the Colburn factor with condensa-
tion and the one for dry convection. This equation is a function
of the Reynolds number (6,0 0 0 - 19,0 0 0) and the difference be-
tween inlet specific humidity and the saturation specific humidity
(0.0075 - 0.0201 kg/kg). In the results the influence of the suction
and roughness effect is again derived from the experiments carried
out. The correlation to consider the enhancement of the dry heat
transfer coefficient bases once more on a parameter range that fits
few with the examined range in the present research.
Fig. 2. Flow diagram of the experimental setup.
4
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 170 (2021) 121016
None of the previously mentioned research works provides a
correlation that is reasonably applicable for the investigated case.
Essentially, three main categories for the investigation of the heat
transfer during condensation in cooled tubes could be extracted
from the previous literature study. Most of the investigations con-
sider pure steam flows or steam flows with a very low NCG con-
tent. Further research work is done about condensation of small
water vapour quantities from moist flue gas. In the third field, re-
searchers deal with the condensation of water vapour from humid
air. In summary, the inner heat transfer coefficient influenced by
partial condensation during gas cooling is rarely examined for air-
steam mixtures with NCG fractions greater than 80 %. The theoreti-
cal models are few and horizontal tubes are not investigated as ex-
tensively than vertical tubes. The studies indicate that there is still
a need to examine the in-tube condensation in horizontal tubes
with high non-condensable gas fractions, because of its relevance
for heat transfer in exhaust gas heat exchangers which are often
run in partial condensation mode. The exhaust gas to be cooled
mostly has a vapour fraction between 10 % and 20 %.
3. Experimental facility
3.1. Apparatus setup and measuring equipment
A double-tube heat exchanger is used as basis of the experi-
mental setup to determine the inner heat transfer coefficient dur-
ing exhaust gas cooling. The inner tube of the heat exchanger
is made of stainless steel, the outer tube of polyvinyl chloride
(PVC). On the outside of the PVC tube, the heat exchanger is ther-
mally insulated with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) insulation.
Fig. 2 shows a schematic flow diagram and Table 1 the equipment
list of the setup. In Fig. 3 a photograph of the experimental setup
is shown. A fan (V01) blows ambient air through an electric air
M. Gundermann, F. Raab, D. Raab et al.
Table 1
List of apparatus equipment regarding Fig. 2 and tube properties.
Equipment list
H01 Bypass-Valve Air
H02 Bypass-Valve Cooling water
H03 Control-Valve external CW-Circuit
H04 Ball Valve Condensate
B01 Container Laboratory cooling water
V01 Blower Air
Thermal properties of the inner stainless steel tube
cp 500 J/(kgK ) specific isobaric heat capacity
λ 18 W/(mK ) Thermal conductivity
ρ 8 kg/dm3 Density
Fig. 3. Photograph of the experimental setup.
heater (W02) into the inlet chamber, where steam from an evap-
orator (W03) is mixed with the hot air using an annular steam
injector nozzle. The evaporator is supplied with water by a dosing
pump (P01). This allows the dew point at the inlet (x = 0) to be ad-
justed. The air-steam mixture flows through the inner tube (W01)
of the heat exchanger, which is connected to the inlet (x = 0) and
outlet (x = L) chamber by a flange mounting. Because of the cool-
ing water flow in the annular gap between the inner and outer
tube, the mixture cools down along the cooled length of the inner
tube, while a part of the water vapour condenses. Both the con-
densate and the remaining cooled air-steam mixture flow into the
outlet chamber. The condensate leaves the outlet chamber through
a hose (H05) and flows into a container, in which the condensate
mass is collected and its mass flow rate can be determined. The
remaining air-steam mixture flows upwards over a Coriolis mea-
suring device (FRC 103) towards the aspiration system of the lab-
oratory. The temperature of the cooling water at the inlet of the
annular gap (TRC 201) is adjusted by the laboratory cooling water
supply system. In the inlet (TRC 201) and outlet (TR 202) of the
annular gap the temperature of the cooling water is measured by
thermocouples. The corresponding volume flow is determined by a
magnetic-inductive flow meter (FRC 104). With the aid of an elec-
trically operated immersion boiler in the (B01) and an automatic
temperature control, a constant cooling water temperature can be
generated. The point x = 0 in Fig. 2 is the beginning and x = L is
the end of the cooled length.
The temperature and the humidity of the sucked-in air are
measured by a humidity sensor (MIR 101 and MR102). In order
to generate a constant mass flow rate of the incoming air, the fre-
quency of the blower (V01) converter can be adjusted. The mass
flow rate through the inner tube can be additionally adjusted by a
bypass which can be opened and closed by a control valve (H01).
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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 170 (2021) 121016
W01 double-tube heat exchanger
W02 Air heater
W03 Spiral coil evaporator
W04 Plate heat exchanger
P01 Cooling water pump
P02 Evaporator water supply pump
The inlet temperature of the air-vapour mixture is measured by
a thermocouple (TRC 102) in the inlet chamber, directly in front
of the inlet of the inner tube. This temperature is constantly con-
trolled by the power setting of the air heater. The temperature of
the air-steam mixture leaving the test section (x = L) is measured
by a specific sleeve established by Mac Nelly et al. [23] in 2015.
With the aid of three thermocouples (TR 103 - TR 105) in a sleeve,
the temperature in the center of the flow on the one hand and re-
dundantly the average bulk temperature of the flow, on the other
hand can be measured. The average bulk temperature is measured
by two thermocouples (TR 103 and TR 105) at ±0.7r horizontally
from the center (TR 104). The composition of the remaining air-
vapour mixture in the outlet chamber is determined using a hu-
midity sensor which measures the temperature (TR 106) and the
relative humidity (MR 102) of the leaving gas flow. An additional
thermocouple (TR 107) is located in the center of the outlet cham-
ber. The mass flow rate of the leaving air-steam mixture is mea-
sured by a Coriolis flow meter (FRC 103).
3.2. Parameter sets of the performed experiments
The temperature of the entering air-vapour mixture was aver-
aged to approximately 120 °C in this work, based on the experi-
ence of a heat exchangers manufacturer. To reach this temperature
and a superheated condition, the temperature of the water vapour
leaving the evaporator was set to 170 °C. The averaged temperature
of the water supply- and return-flow temperature used in condens-
ing waste gas heat exchangers is usually between 10 °C and 50 °C.
Therefore, the cooling water supply temperature in the annular gap
of the double tube is set to a constant temperature of 35 °C and
the cooling water flow rate is set to a value of 50 l/min for all ex-
periments.
M. Gundermann, F. Raab, D. Raab et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 170 (2021) 121016

Table 2 densate flow rate is measured by its accumulation in a container

All parameters for the investigated diameters, which are set
on a scale. Three measurements were taken for one flow rate.
in different configurations for the measurements - in total 186
data points.
3.3. Verification of the setup and uncertainty analysis
dO =22 mm

L M˙ mix ϑτ ϑmix,in The temperature measuring points and their placement, to

0.574 m 4 g/s 36 °C 120
0.973 m 6 g/s 42 °C 150
1.373 m 8 g/s 48 °C 175
1.830 m 10 g/s 54 °C 195
2.635 m
3.04 m
dO =28 mm
L M˙ mix ϑτ ϑmix,in
1.830 m 5.2 g/s 42 °C 120 °C
2.635 m 7.8 g/s 48 °C
3.04 m 10.4 g/s 54 °C
11.5 g/s 54 °C
The mass flow rate M˙ mix of humid air flowing into an industrial
heat exchanger is between 4 g/s and 10 g/s per tube of a diameter
of 22 mm. Experiments were conducted with four different mass
flow rates, 4 g/s, 6 g/s, 8 g/s and 10 g/s for the first tube diameter
of 22 mm. This results in velocities of dry air in the pipe of ap-
proximately 14.4 m/s, 21.6 m/s, 28.7 m/s and 35.9 m/s. The typical
volume fractions of water vapour in the incoming air in the ex-
haust gas flow leads to inlet dew point temperatures ϑτ between
36 °C and 54 °C. Four dew points were defined for the measure-
ments: 36 °C, 42 °C, 48 °C and 54 °C. These four dew points corre-
spond to a volume fraction of water vapour of 5.7 %, 7.8 %, 10.6 %
and 14.3 %. The list of the varied parameters for the outer diameter
22 mm are shown in Table 2. The tube lengths 0.574 m, 0.973 m,
1.373 m, 1.830 m, 2.635 m, 3.040 m were examined to obtain the
location profiles of temperatures and flow rates. In total, 186 dif-
ferent parameter adjustments were considered. Based on these ex-
periments the influence of the water vapour content, the Reynolds
number and the tube length on the condensation as well as on the
inner heat transfer coefficient shall be evaluated.
In order to determine the influence of the inlet temperature
several additional parameter adjustments were defined. In addition
to the inlet temperature of 120 °C, three further inlet temperatures
for the highest and lowest mass flow with the 22x1 mm tube ar-
rangement were investigated. As the measurements at the temper-
ature of 120 °C are already included in previous measurements, 54
new parameter adjustments were selected in total for this inves-
tigation. For the investigation of the influence of the diameter on
the condensation rate and on the inner heat transfer coefficient,
the most relevant tube lengths in the industry 1.830 m, 2.645 m,
and 3.040 m were used, with the same Reynolds numbers, dew
point temperatures and cooled lengths. In the real industrial ap-
plications of exhaust gas heat exchangers in condensation mode in
the power range of several hundreds of kilowatt hours, the length
of the apparatus is usually between 2.5 m and 4 m with tubes hav-
ing a diameter between 22 mm and 32 mm, therefore these tube
geometries were measured.
Each series of measurements starts with one using heated
air without additional water vapour. After the measurement with
heated ambient air, a water vapour mass flow rate is introduced
through the evaporator into the inlet chamber until the specified
dew point temperature is reached at the inlet of the tube. When
steady-state operation is reached after approximately 50 minutes,
one measuring point is averaged from ten individually measured
values which are recorded in the data acquisition system. The con-
°C
which the created energy balance mainly refers, were extensively
°C verified in the research work of Harless [24–26]. Additionally the
°C water supply pump for the evaporator and all thermocouples were
°C thoroughly calibrated. All measurements to verify the setup were
performed with a 22x1 mm tube.
Firstly the water mass balance
M˙ W,in
G
= M˙ W,out
G
+ M˙ con , (1)
was checked, where M˙ W,in
G
stands for the incoming gasous water
vapour, M˙ W,out
G for the outgoing gasous water vapour and M˙ con for
the mass flow rate of the condensed liquid water. M˙ con can be mea-
sured directly. The two other mass flow rates standing for the wa-
ter vapour in the gaseous fluid flows have to be determined from
the total gas flow rate and the water vapour fraction. It is reason-
able to use the mass flow rate M˙ NCG of the non-condensable gas
as a basis for this determination because this flow rate does not
change along the apparatus. M˙ NCG is obtained from the total gas
flow rate at the outlet which is measured via a Coriolis flow meter
and the humidity at the outlet.
The outgoing water vapour mass flow rate M˙ W,out
G depends on
the mass flow rate of the non-condensable gas and the water load
XW,out at the outlet.
M˙ W,out
G
= M˙ NCG · XW,out (2)
The incoming water vapour mass flow rate M˙ W,in
G consists of
the humidity in the ambient air, which is sucked in the appara-
tus and the additional evaporated water, which is injected in the
inlet chamber. It can be calculated as
M˙ W,in
G
= M˙ NCG · XW,amb + M˙ E v (3)
from the mass flow rate M˙ NCG of the non-condensable gas, the wa-
ter load XW,amb of the ambient air and the water mass flow rate
M˙ E v fed of the evaporator.
Consequently, the final mass balance is therefore
0 = M˙ NCG · XW,amb + M˙ E v − M˙ NCG · XW,out − M˙ con . (4)
Any inaccuracy in the measurement equipment would lead to
a mass balance not being equal to zero. The relative deviation be-
tween measured condensate flow and the condensed water mass
determined from the mass balance from Eq. 1 can be expressed
as
M˙ con − (M˙ W,in
G
− M˙ W,out
G
)
(5)
M˙ W,in
G
− M˙ W,out
G
and is shown in Fig. 4 for four different dew point temperatures
and four mass flow rates respectively. 87.5 % of the presented
points have a relative deviation less than 5 %. The largest devia-
tions of up to -7 % occur for small dew points, when only small
amounts of water condense in the tube. It can be seen that the
relative deviation is quite small for the investigated water vapour
mass range. The measurement equipment for mass flow rates and
humidity can therefore be considered as appropriate and accurate.
In all measurements presented in this paper, the cooling wa-
ter mass flow rate is chosen very high, to obtain a very large heat
transfer coefficient on the outside of the tube so that its influ-
ence on the overall heat transfer is comparatively low. Depend-
ing on measurement configuration, the outer heat transfer coeffi-
cient has a value of up to 130 0 0 W/(m2 K) and is therefore 70–120
times higher than the inner heat transfer coefficient. As a result,

6
M. Gundermann, F. Raab, D. Raab et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 170 (2021) 121016

Fig. 4. Relative deviation of the measured condensate mass flow rate for four dif-
ferent mixture mass flow rates at each dew point.

the cooling water temperature increases by only less than 0.5 K
so that the transferred heat cannot be calculated accurately on the
basis of this temperature difference. In order to be able to evaluate
the accuracy of the entire measurement setup the mass flow rate
of the cooling water was reduced from approximately 50 l/min to
5 l/min for some verification measurements leading to a cooling
water temperature change of up to 5 K, so that the transferred en-
ergy can be determined on the basis of the gas flow as well as on
the cooling water side. The deviation of the energy balance can be
taken from Fig. 5. The highest relative deviation with 6 % occurred
for a relatively dew point of 36 °C.
In total, the setup contains 13 measuring devices. The manufac-
turer’s specifications for the deviations of the individual measured
parameters are listed in Table 3. The six used thermocouples are
of type K and were thoroughly calibrated, so that their deviation
is less than ± 0.5 K. The accuracy of the condensate measurement
is determined to be ± 6 % by analysing the water mass balance
like shown previously. In the case of the mass flow rate of the in-
jected vapour, its maximum deviation was determined by means of
a mass balance over the pump and the evaporator. When checking
the measuring accuracy of the magnetic-inductive measuring de-
vice for the cooling water flow, it became apparent that the mea-
suring accuracy specified by the manufacturer was exceeded. The
maximum deviation was determined by a new reference measure-
ment. To finally quantify the accuracy of the measurements, an
error propagation calculation was carried out, taking into account
the respective inaccuracies of the individual measuring points. The
errors were calculated for the recorded measurement parameters,
Fig. 5. Comparison between the measured mean heat rate of the cooled air-steam
mixture including condensation heat rate and the measured heat rate absorbed by
the cooling water.
the heat transfer rate, the heat transfer coefficient with condensa-
tion and the mean log temperature difference. In all figures with
experimental results the maximum absolute total errors are given
as error bars, which are calculated by a maximum error estimation.
Both the statistical and systematic errors were taken into account,
except for the measured condensate mass flow rate for which only
three values were recorded and the statistical error is not deter-
mined.
4. Theoretical analysis
When dealing with flue gas cooling it has to be taken into ac-
count, that the gas temperature next to the wall is usually consid-
erably smaller than the mean gas temperature in one cross section.
A condensate film is formed as soon as the gas temperature next to
the wall decreases to the saturation temperature. The gas-vapour
mixture enters the tube with inlet temperature ϑmix and an inlet
vapour fraction yw,in . Over the tube length L the gas-vapour flow
cools down due to the heat transfer to the cooling water. The for-
mation of the condensation film and the gaseous boundary layer is
shown in Fig. 6. Contrary to the procedure used in the investiga-
tions of Zeynali and Abolfazli [21], no difference between the heat

Table 3
Uncertainty of measuring parameters.

Measuring parameter Value Variable Uncertainty Unit

2x Humidity sensor 15 - 100 % ϕ ± 1.5 %

15 - 80 °°C ϑ ± 0.23 °C
5x Thermocouples 5 - 195 °C ϑ ± 0.5 °C
1x Gas mass flow, Coriolis 4 - 12 g/s M˙ mix ± 1.5 %
1x Condensate mass flow 0 - 1.7 kg/h M˙ con ± 6.0 %
1x Steam mass flow 0 - 4 l/h M˙ EW ± 2.2 %
1x Cooling water mass flow 52 - 54 l/h M˙ CW ± 4.0 %
1x Ambient pressure 0.975 - 1.150 bar pa ± 0.35 %
1x Ouletpressure 1.000 - 1.150 bar pout ± 0.0125 %

7
M. Gundermann, F. Raab, D. Raab et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 170 (2021) 121016

Q˙ exp = Q˙ NCG + Q˙ W
G
+ Q˙ con
= M˙ NCG · [hair (ϑmix,x=0 ) − hair (ϑmix,x=L )]
+ M˙ W
G G
· [hW (ϑmix,x=0 ; pW,x=0 ) − hW
G
(ϑmix,x=L , pW,x=L )]
+ M˙ W,con · [hW
G
(ϑmix,x=0 ; pW,x=0 ) − hW
L
(ϑwall )] (7)
Eq. 7 can be divided into three main heat transfer parts: the
cooling of the dry air Q˙ NCG , the cooling of the non-condensing wa-
ter vapour part Q˙ W
G and the heat released due to condensation Q˙
con .
For the last-named part the sub cooling of the condensate is con-
sidered.
The heat transfer rate in a heat exchanger depends on the over-
all heat transfer coefficient k, the heat transfer area A and the log
mean temperature difference ϑm .
Q˙ = k · A · ϑm (8)
with
(ϑmix,x=0 − ϑCW,out ) − (ϑmix,x=L − ϑCW,in )
ϑ m = ϑ −ϑ
. (9)
Fig. 6. Temperature and volume fraction profiles during mixture cooling with con- ln ϑmix,x=0 −ϑCW,out
mix,x=L CW,in
densation of water vapour in sectional view.
The transferability (k · Ai ) is defined as
1
k · Ai = 1 s 1
(10)
Ai ·αi
+ Am ·λwall
+ Ao ·αKW
transfer in the upper or the lower part of the inner tube is taken
into account. The condensate mass flow rate M˙ con resulting from and includes the required heat transfer coefficient αi on the gas
partial condensation flows point wise radially to the tube bottom side as well as the heat transfer coefficient αCW on the cooling
or directly in an axial direction. Colburn and Hougen [27] have water side and the thermal resistance of the wall. Introducing all
already proposed a model of heat transfer in film condensation these values in Eq. 8 and isolating αi leads to
1930. This diffusion-layer model was investigated by many other 1
research projects [28–30]. The boundary layer model, created by αi = . (11)
log ddo
ϑ m
Nusselt [31] and used by Rose [32] among others, gives a further Ai · ( Q˙ exp
− 2·π ·λ ·L − i 1
Ao ·αcw
)
wall
theory for the film wise condensation mechanism. Fig. 6 shows the
The equipment also allows to examine the heat transfer without
qualitative temperature profile of the considered heat transfer pro-
condensation and to determine the so called dry heat transfer co-
cess.
efficient αi,dry . The heat transfer rate for dry conditions follows
In radial direction the gas temperature strongly decreases to
analogously to Eq. 7, but with transfer rate enthalpies and physi-
saturation temperature across the air-vapour-diffusion layer. The
cal properties based on equations for air-steam mixture conditions
film formed through condensation process has a thermal resistance
without condensation.
that is very low due to its small film thickness, leading to a very
small temperature difference over the condensate film. The ther- Q˙ exp,dry = M˙ NCG · [hair (ϑmix,in ) − hair (ϑmix,out )]
mal resistance of the thin tube wall is again very small, thus the (ϑmix,in ; pW,x=0 ) − hW (ϑmix,out , pW,x
+M˙ W,in · [hW = L )]
G G G sat
profile drops only slightly to the temperature ϑwal l ,out . On the cool-
ing water side the thermal resistance is also significant small due (12)
to the very high heat transfer coefficient in the annular gap. For The general procedure for calculating the inner dry heat transfer
the calculation of the inner heat transfer coefficient, in this paper coefficient αi,dry is the same as for the inner heat transfer coeffi-
it is therefore assumed, that the temperature of the cooling water cient with condensation αi presented above and results in
nearly equals the temperature of the wall and the condensate film.
1
The most influencing temperature difference occurs between the αi,dry = . (13)
bulk of the gas phase and the gas-liquid-interface. log ddo
ϑ m
Ai · ( Q˙ − 2·π ·λ ·L − i 1
Ao ·αcw
)
exp,dry wall

ϑCW ≈ ϑwal l ,out ≈ ϑwal l ,in ≈ ϑcon
The dew point of the condensing component is often used to
describe the composition in gas streams of flue gas heat exchang-
ers instead of the water vapour volume fraction. The dew point
temperature ϑτ equals the saturation temperature at the partial
pressure pW of the water vapour and can be calculated from the
equation of Antoine [33] for pure water. The external heat transfer
coefficient αCW in the annular gap of the double tube can be cal-
culated with standard equations from literature according to the
VDI Heat Atlas [9] of the Verein deutscher Ingenieure (VDI) and
Gnielinski [34].
The temperatures of the hot and the cold fluid at both inlets
and outlets are known from the measurements and allow to cal-
culate the experimentally determined total heat transfer rate Q˙ exp
as
(6) A method to calculate the dry inner heat transfer coefficient the-
oretically is the way presented by Gnielinski [35], which is also
recommended by the VDI heat atlas [9]. For the calculation the av-
erage values of Re and the physical properties of the mixture be-
tween inlet and outlet are used. For the Prandtl number the data of
the inlet chamber is used in this paper, because the value is usually
the same for all tested cases. For the determination of the absolute
viscosity and the thermal conductivity of the air-steam mixture the
rule of mixtures according to Wassiljeva, Mason und Saxena [36],
[9] is used. Their assumption is based on two weighting factors
AW and WA for the air-vapour mixture.
5. Experimental results and discussion
The main goal of this work is to develop a factor, which allows
predicting the enhancement of the heat transfer coefficient due to

8
M. Gundermann, F. Raab, D. Raab et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 170 (2021) 121016

condensation. This factor fC is defined as the ratio between the

experimentally determined inner heat transfer coefficient αi with
condensing water vapour and the dry single phase heat transfer
coefficient αi,dry without condensation.
αi
fC = (14)
αi,dry
The factor fC depends on several conditions of the gaseous mass
flow. Therefore, the influence of the gaseous mass flow rate, the in-
let temperature, the vapour volume fraction, the Reynolds number
and the tube geometry on the inner heat transfer coefficient αi is
examined in detail in sections 5.1 to 5.5 before proposing a corre-
lation for fC in Section 5.6.

5.1. Influence of the gaseous mass flow rate on the heat transfer
The first aim of the present research work was the determi-
nation of profiles for gas temperature, mass flow rate and heat
transfer rate along the tube length. A tube with an outer diame-
ter do of 22 mm was used for the investigation of this subsection.
Fig. 7 shows the gas temperature profile over the tube length and
depending on the mass flow. The gas temperature always starts at
the inlet temperature of 120 °C regardless the dew point tempera-
ture set. The charted profiles for four different mass flow rates are
applied at the highest dew point of 54 °C. The maximum temper-
ature difference is particularly evident in the first part of the tube,
where cooling increases with a decreasing mass flow rate. Due to
Fig. 7. Comparison of the location profiles of the air-steam mixtures temperature
over the tube lengths at different total mass flow rates and a dew point of 54 ◦ C.
the longer duration of time in the tube, the gas temperature drops
more rapidly at low mass flow rates. However, the longer the tube
is, the smaller the difference becomes between the gas tempera-
tures.
Fig. 8 shows profiles of the condensate mass flow rate for four
different mass flow rates of the incoming air-steam mixture and

Fig. 8. Profile of the condensate mass flow rate for four different inlet dew points and four different mass flow rates of the incoming air-steam mixture.

9
M. Gundermann, F. Raab, D. Raab et al.
Fig. 9. Profiles of the total heat transfer rates for four different inlet dew points and four different mass flow rates of the incoming air-steam mixture.
four inlet dew point temperatures. An additional aim of this inves-
tigation was to discover how much vapour condenses, when the
dew point of the mixture is very close to the cooling water tem-
perature. It is clear from the profiles in Fig. 8, that the mass flow
rate of the condensate tends to increase over the tube length as
expected. At a dew point temperature of 36 °C no condensate is
formed in the investigated area. The higher the dew point tem-
perature and thus the fraction of water vapour in the entering air,
the more condensate occurs. The condensation rate is highest at
the beginning of the tube, as can be seen from the maximum gra-
dient in the condensate flow rate. At a dew point of 42 °C, con-
densate is not measured from the beginning of the pipe, but after
around 0.5 m in three of four cases. The largest condensate mass
flow rate is achieved with the highest total mass flow rate and the
highest dew point at the inlet, as shown in part d in Fig. 8. The
measured heat transfer rates are shown in Fig. 9 depending on the
tube length of the used apparatus. Four different dew points and
four mass flow rates of the air-steam mixtures were investigated.
As expected from the profiles of the gas temperature and the
condensate mass flow rate, the total heat transfer rate increases
more strongly at the beginning of the tube than towards the end.
The reason for this is the higher condensation rate at the begin-
ning. It can be seen that more heat is transferred at higher dew
points due to the increasing condensate flow. Additionally, a larger
total mass flow rate also causes an increase in the heat transfer
rate due to the increased gas-side heat transfer coefficient.
10
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 170 (2021) 121016
5.2. Influence of the inlet temperature on the heat transfer coefficient
72 experiments were investigated to determine the influence of
the inlet temperature on the heat transfer. Three tube lengths of
0.973 m, 1.83 m and 3.04 m were examined. Fig. 10 displays the
measurements for a lower mass flow rate of 4 g/s and the tube
length of 3.040 m. Diagram a of Fig. 10 shows that the conden-
sate mass flow rate does not depend on the increasing inlet tem-
perature at the 36 data points. Diagram b displays the log mean
temperature difference (LMTD), which shows an increasing trend
at higher inlet temperatures. The experimentally determined heat
flux as a function of the inlet temperature in diagram c shows a
linear upward trend. The inner heat transfer coefficient (HTC) can
be calculated from the displayed measured values by Eq. 11 and
is shown in diagram d. The heat transfer coefficient stays almost
constant for the smallest dew point. For higher dew points, the in-
ner heat transfer coefficient decreases with increasing inlet tem-
perature. Due to the fact, that the gradient of the heat flux is
smaller than the gradient of the log mean temperature difference,
the heat transfer coefficient shrinks minimally. This effect is par-
ticularly strong at lower inlet temperatures, when the heat flux is
small. The diagrams of Fig. 10 demonstrate that the gaseous in-
let temperature influences the total heat transfer rate because of
its strong impact on the log mean temperature difference whereas
the heat transfer rate due to condensation does not depend on the
gaseous inlet temperature.
M. Gundermann, F. Raab, D. Raab et al.
Fig. 10. Influence of the gas inlet temperature ϑmix,in on the condensate mass flow rate a), the log mean temperature difference b), the mean heat flux c) and the heat
transfer coefficient with condensation d) - tube length L = 3.04 m, outer diameter do = 22 mm, mass flow rate M˙ mix = 4 g/s.
The results of the measurements with higher mass flow rate of
6 g/s, 8 g/s and 10 g/s agree with the trends shown in Fig. 10. It
can be stated that a variation of the inlet temperature does not in-
fluence the condensation rate in the tube, thus it will not be con-
sidered in the correction factor presented in Section 5.6.
5.3. Influence of the vapour volume fraction on the heat transfer
coefficient
The results related to the influence of the inlet vapour volume
fraction are based on 54 experiments out of three various mass
flow rates, three dew point temperatures, two tube diameters and
three tube lengths. Fig. 11 illustrates the experimental results for
a tube length of 3.04 m. As diagrams a and c in Fig. 11 show, the
inner heat transfer coefficient and the condensate mass flow rate
increases extremely with increasing vapour volume fraction. The
dry experimental heat transfer coefficient αi,dry increases slightly,
because the increasing water vapour content leads to a higher to-
tal mass flow rate and therefore a higher mixture Reynolds num-
ber. Diagram a demonstrates, that the total heat transfer coefficient
with condensation αi increases by a factor of almost three com-
pared to the dry state at the highest volume fraction and the high-
est Reynolds number. Diagram b and d show the results for the
larger diameter of 28 mm. In these diagrams nearly the same ratio
can be observed, only the increase of the heat transfer coefficient is
slightly lower. Due to the described influence of the water vapour
volume fraction on condensation and the inner heat transfer co-
efficient for both diameters, this parameter has to be considered,
when the influence of condensation on the transferred heat is ex-
amined.
11
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 170 (2021) 121016
5.4. Influence of the Reynolds number on the heat transfer coefficient
The results related to the influence of the inlet mixture
Reynolds number are based on 54 data points out of three various
mass flow rates, three dew point temperatures, two tube diameters
and three tube lengths. Fig. 12 shows that the inner heat trans-
fer coefficient and the condensate mass flow rate increase with
the Reynolds number. For a comparison with pure gas cooling, di-
agrams a and b also display the heat transfer coefficient which
would occur without condensation. The dry heat transfer coeffi-
cient rises with the same gradient as the one at a dew point tem-
perature of 42 °C. However, with increasing dew point tempera-
ture, the influence of the Reynolds number increases, too. It is as-
sumed that due to the higher water vapour content, the turbulence
in the tube is increased and thus also the condensation rate and
the inner heat and mass transfer increase. Diagrams b and d show
the results for measurements with the larger diameter of 28 mm
and follow the equal trends as displayed in diagram a and c. Due to
the described influence of the mixture Reynolds number on con-
densation and the inner heat transfer coefficient for both diame-
ters, this parameter is considered in the correction factor.
5.5. Influence of the tube geometry on the heat transfer coefficient
In total, 27 further data points with an outer tube diameter of
28 mm for the tube length 1.83 m, 2.635 m and 3.04 m were in-
vestigated. The mixture Reynolds number, the vapour volume frac-
tion, the gas inlet temperature and the tube length were kept the
same for each measurement performed to determine the influence
of the diameter. The measurement results showed that the con-
M. Gundermann, F. Raab, D. Raab et al.
Fig. 11. Influence of the vapour volume fraction on the dry heat transfer coefficient αi,dry , the heat transfer coefficient with condensation αi and the condensate mass flow
rate M˙ con for a tube length of L = 3.04 m and two different outer diameters.
densate mass flow rate at the larger diameter is generally equal or
higher than that at the smaller diameter. Therefore the condensa-
tion rate is influenced by the tube diameter size. The experimen-
tally determined total mean heat flux is almost similar for every
measured data point, although the diameter changes. But because
the log mean temperature difference differs considerably between
both diameters, the inner heat transfer coefficient is decreasing
with increasing diameter, even though the condensate mass flow
rate is increasing. Due to the described influence of the tube di-
ameter on the condensation rate and the inner heat transfer coef-
ficient, this parameter is considered in the correction factor.
5.6. Correlation for the correction factor
The correction factor proposed in this paper offers a reasonable
possibility to account for the condensation of some water vapour
when a flue gas is cooled under its dew point temperature. The
enhancement of the heat transfer rate due to the condensation can
be considered by multiplying the single phase heat transfer coeffi-
cient with the correction factor introduced in this paper. The sin-
gle phase heat transfer coefficient used for the development of the
factor was both measured experimentally and calculated theoret-
ically. In order to check the experimentally determined dry heat
transfer coefficient αi,dry , the heat transfer coefficient for pure dry
gas cooling αi,dry,Gn according to [9,35] was calculated for an com-
parison. Fig. 13 shows the comparison between measured and cal-
culated dry inner heat transfer coefficient for all 72 experiments.
82 % of the data is within the measurement uncertainty for the
inner heat transfer coefficient, which is 10.74 %. The values which
are not within the measurement accuracy are from measurements
12
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 170 (2021) 121016
with the shortest tube of 1.83 m length and at the smallest dew
point temperature of 42 °C. In this measuring range, the influence
of the inlet can be a reason for the deviation. Due to the lower wa-
ter vapour fraction at a dew point of 42 °C the mixture Reynolds
number decrease and consequently the turbulent flow pattern of
the mixture is less developed. Moreover, mean values are assumed
for the calculation of the parameters of the Gnielinski equations,
which can also lead to inaccuracies.
From the analysis in Sections 5.2 to 5.5 it can be concluded that
the influence of four out of five investigated parameters should be
considered in a correction factor. In addition to the inner diameter
di and the length L of the tube, also the mixture Reynolds number
Remix,in of the incoming gas and its water vapour volume fraction
yW,in at the tube inlet are the main influencing parameters. The
correlation for predicting an inner heat transfer coefficient during
condensation is expressed with the Graetz number Gzmix,in to re-
duce the number of influencing parameters from four to two. The
Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm was used for fitting the correlation
to the measurements and leads to
αi
fC = = 20.22 · y1.093 · Gz0.0193 (15)
αi,dry
with
di
Gzmix,in = Remix,in · P rmix,in · . (16)
L
for the prediction of the correction factor fC with a probability of
97 % and is valid for the range shown in Table 4. The vapour vol-
ume fraction yW,in and the Graetz number GzW,in refer to inlet con-
ditions.
M. Gundermann, F. Raab, D. Raab et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 170 (2021) 121016

Fig. 12. Influence of the Reynolds number Remix on the dry heat transfer coefficient αi,dry , the heat transfer coefficient with condensation αi and the condensate mass flow
rate M˙ con for a tube length of L = 3.04 m and two different outer diameters.

Table 4
Range of validity of the correlation.

Parameter Symbol Range

outer diameter dO 22 mm - 28 mm
tube length L 1.83 m - 3.040 m
inlet vapour volume fraction yW,in 0.065 - 0.0145
inlet Reynolds number Remix,in 11,000 - 31,000
inlet Graetz number Gzmix,in 55 - 285
cooling water temperature ϑCW 35 °C
inlet pressure pin 0.1 - 0.115 MPa

Fig. 14 shows the calculated correction factor over the experi-

Fig. 13. Comparison between the experimentally determined dry HTC and the cal-
culated dry HTC by Gnielinski-equation [35].
mentally determined one for the three examined dew point tem-
peratures. 97 % of the calculated factors are within a deviation of
15 %. The scattering in the point cluster of the respective dew point
is caused by the influences of the Reynolds number Remix,in and the
geometry parameter di /L. Fig. 14 illustrates once again that the wa-
ter vapour fraction has the highest impact compared to the other
influencing parameters.
Finally the heat transfer coefficient calculated by using the cor-
rection factor presented in this paper is compared with the exper-
imentally measured value in Fig. 15. This Figure also includes the
comparison of heat transfer coefficients calculated by using stan-
dard industrial software [37]. It can be seen that the procedure

13
M. Gundermann, F. Raab, D. Raab et al.
Fig. 14. Comparison of the calculated correction factor with the experimentally de-
termined enhancement of the heat transfer coefficient due to condensation.
Fig. 15. Deviation of the calculated inner heat transfer coefficient to the experi-
mental values.
presented in this paper predicts the experimental value for 95 % of
the data with an uncertainty of 15 %. The industrial software, on
the other hand, strongly overestimates the heat transfer coefficient
and roughly even doubles the measured value. However, the soft-
ware does correctly predict the transferred total heat rate as shown
in Fig. 16. The reason for this behaviour is the specific calculation
method of the industrial software, which considers condensation
only with a bulk temperature below saturation temperature and
does not take into account that the major amount of water vapour
condenses in the cooled region on the tube wall surface. Hence the
software strongly underestimates the condensation rate and com-
pensates this by an overprediction of the heat transfer coefficient
and therefore the gas cooling.
Fig. 16 shows the product of the log mean temperature differ-
ence and the heat transfer coefficient, representing the mean heat
flux. The heat flux predicted with the correlation of this paper is
14
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 170 (2021) 121016
Fig. 16. Comparison between the theoretically and experimentally mean heat flux,
determined by multiplying the heat transfer coefficient with the log mean temper-
ature difference.
slightly too high due to the assumption that the heat transfer re-
sistance of the wall and the cooling water can be neglected. The
software [37] determines the transferred mean heat flux slightly
more precise than the correlation and generally calculates conser-
vatively. All in all it is shown, that the prediction of the software
for the heat flux is correct and could be confirmed by the exper-
iments. Nevertheless, both the condensate mass flow rate and the
outlet gas temperature are more accurately taken into account us-
ing the correlation presented in this paper, when designing a heat
exchanger in condensation mode.
6. Conclusions
The energy released by the phase transition from the gaseous
to the liquid aggregate state of water has a great influence on the
total heat transfer rate during gas cooling with condensation. Cur-
rently available calculation methods and publications of the last
decades calculate the inner heat transfer coefficient during con-
densation from an air-steam mixture in a horizontal tube mostly
for water vapour fractions which are far above the ones in this re-
search work. Accordingly, the correlations arising from these re-
sults could not be used for the presented investigation. In order
to develop a correlation that can be used for the design work in
condensation heat exchangers, own experiments with suitable pa-
rameters were carried out. The accuracy and usability of the mea-
surements were ensured by different evaluations of the setup. Air-
steam mixture flow rates with Reynolds numbers between 11,0 0 0
and 31,0 0 0, three tube lengths between 1.87 m and 3.04 m, water
vapour volume fractions of 7 % to 14.5 % as well as tube diam-
eters of 22 mm and 28 mm were selected to find the influencing
parameters and to create a correlation. The measurements allowed
to illustrate location profiles of gas temperature, condensate mass
flow rate, heat transfer coefficient and heat transfer rate over the
tube length. The key findings are:
1. The condensation mass flow rate increases with increasing tube
length, water vapour volume fraction and mixture Reynolds
number. A changing inlet gas temperature does not distinctly
influence the condensation rate, even when the tube outlet gas
temperature does sometimes drop below the dew point tem-
M. Gundermann, F. Raab, D. Raab et al.
perature. The condensate is formed on the cooled tube wall and
not in the cooled gas flow.
2. Experiments show that the condensation rate depends on the
inlet water vapour volume fraction, the Reynolds number of the
gas flow and the ratio between the inner diameter and the tube
length. For data reduction the last three parameters were sum-
marized by the dimensionless Graetz number.
3. A correction factor which depends on the water vapour fraction
of the inlet and the Graetz number is introduced in this paper
and can be used to account for the enhancement of the heat
transfer coefficient due to partial condensation. The basis for
the correction factor is the heat transfer coefficient for single
phase gas cooling without condensation. The presented proce-
dure predicts the heat transfer coefficient with an accuracy of
±15 %.
Declaration of Competing Interest
None
Acknowledgements
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding
agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
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