CHAPTER SIX

Heat transfer with phase

change
 Condensation

When saturated vapor comes in contact with a

cooler surface, the vapor condenses into liquid.
The surface temperature should be lower in this
case as compared to the temperature of the
vapor. The condensate generally moves down by
gravity.
If the liquid wets the surface a thin layer of
liquids forms over the surface and the film
thickness increases along the downward
direction. This type of condensation is known as
film wise condensation
 Cont…
The film introduces a resistance to heat flow
between the surface and the vapor. The heat
transfer rate is reduced because of this resistance.
If the surface is no wetting, then droplets form on
the surface and these roll down individually. The
vapor is in direct contact with the surface over
most of the area and heat transfer rates are much
higher as there is very little resistance for heat
flow between the vapor and the surface. This type
is known as dropwise condensation.
 Formation of condensate film
As condensate forms on the surface, the
surface is fully wetted and the liquid begins to
flow down. Under steady conditions additional
condensate is added along the length and the
film thickness increases in the direction of flow.
The forces encountered are the viscous shear,
gravity force and the buoyant force.
Cont…
Cont…
 Cont…
Then

Integrating and using the boundary that u = 0 at

y=0
 Cont…
The total mass flow at any section can be
determined by integrating the flow using the
velocity distribution.
 Cont…
Assuming a linear variation of temperature in
the film,

The condensation occurring between sections

x and x + dx can be obtained using ∆m. The
heat flow in this section will be the product
mass and latent heat.
 Cont…
The condensation occurring between sections x
and x + dx can be obtained using ∆m. The heat
flow in this section will be the product mass
and latent heat.

By multiplying and dividing by dδ

 Cont….
As heat conducted = heat removed from
condensate, for the distance dx along the flow,

Integrating and using δ = 0 at x = 0, yields,

 Cont…
heat transfer at the surface by conduction is
equal to the heat converted.
Assuming linear temperature variation,
 Cont…
Then

The average value of convection coefficient upon

lengths L is obtained by

For higher values of lengths, 0.943 is replaced by 1.13.

 Cont…
In order to take care of the actual nonlinear
temperature variation and also under cooling
the enthalpy of evaporation is corrected by

where c1 is the specific heat of liquid.

 Cont…
For condensation on horizontal tubes of
diameter d the correlation is

and for n tube rows in vertical direction, nd

replaces d.
 Cont…
Turbulent film: As the condensate film thickness
increases, the flow becomes turbulent.
In order to define this condition a film Reynolds
number Reδ concept is used.

Where Ac is the flow area 1*δ and p is the wetted

per meter (1m).
 Cont…
this c an be simplified to

Where G is the mass flow per unit depth of the

plate given by

For Reδ > 1800 the flow is turbulent .the

correlation for convection coefficient is
 Cont…
The condensation number is defined as

This leads to the rewriting of equation as

 Cont…
For lower film Reynolds numbers for vertical
plate (Reδ<1800)

For horizontal cylinders for (Reδ< 1800)

 BOILING
When a liquid is heated under constant pressure, the
temperature of the liquid first will increase to a value
known as the saturation temperature of the liquid at that
pressure. Further heat addition causes change of phase
from liquid to vapor. the value of convective heat transfer
coefficient is very high for the evaporation process. A
large change in the rate of heat addition causes a fairly
small change in the surface temperature. As convection
coefficient is determined based on the temperature
difference between the surface and the fluid, the surface
temperature becomes an important parameter.
Q/A = q = h(Tsurface – Tfluid)
 Cont..
The surface temperature has to be higher than
the saturation temperature for boiling to take
place. The difference between the surface and
liquid temperatures is called the excess
temperature. The term ∆T = Tw – Tsat = excess
temperature is used in the study of boiling heat
transfer as a primary variable. (where Tw is the
surface temperature and Tsat is the saturation
temperature).
 Cont…
Nature of boiling process: When the temperature
of the liquid is lower than the saturation
temperature, the liquid is called undercooled. If the
temperature is above saturation level it is called
superheated liquid. Vapour can form only from
superheated or saturated liquid.
Boiling can be classified as pool boiling and flow
boiling. Boiling of non flowing or stationary fluid is
known as pool boiling. Boiling as during the flow of
water and steam (two phase fluid) through a tube
with wall heat flux is called flow boiling.
 Cont…
Regimes of boiling: The physical phenomenon of
pool boiling can be divided basically into four
different regimes based on the excess
temperature.
The regimes are:(values are for water boiling at
100°C)
 Purely convective region ∆T < 5°C
 Nucleate Boiling 5 < ∆T < 50°C
 Unstable (nucleate ⇔ film) boiling 50°C <∆T<200°C
 Stable film boiling ∆T > 200°C.
 Cont..
Purely convective Boiling
The excess temperature is less than 5°C. The liquid
in contact with the hot surface gets superheated
and slowly rises to the surface and vapor
formation generally occurs at the surface. This
can be observed by allowing water to be heated
to near saturation temperature and then heating
it further using a slow flame. Vapor will be
observed over the water surface. No bubbles will
be observed. The heat flux will be of the order of
0.15 MW/m2.
 Cont…
Film Boiling: A further increase in the heat flux
causes a film of vapour to cover the surface. This
is due to the merging of favourable locations into
an area. This reduces the convection coefficient
and excess temperature shoots up to a very high
value. In this situation the heat transfer is both by
radiation and by conduction to the vapor. If the
material is not strong enough for withstanding this
temperature, the equipment will fail by damage to
the material. This is known as burn out.
 Cont…
The correlations obtained for nucleate pool
boiling is given by
Cont….
 Cont…
This correlation is the result of a log log plot of
experimental results with parameters.

This resulted in a straight line with value of

Csf= 0.013 generally leading to the correlation
The maximum value of heat flux after which
boiling becomes unstable is called critical heat
flux.
 Cont…
The theoretical value of the constant is
0.131 and it is replaced by 0.149 for better
agreement with experimental results. As
hfg,ρ1, ρv and  are dependent also on
pressure, the critical heat flux is found to
be influenced by the evaporating pressure
and is found to occur at P/Pcr= 0.33 where
Pcr is the critical pressure
 cont….
Simplified expression for boiling water (as in
the case of air in free convection) is given by

Where P is the system pressure and Pa the

values of C and n are tabulated below is the
standard atmospheric pressure.
 Cont…
In stable film boiling heat transfer occurs both
by convection and radiation. The convection
component for boiling on horizontal tube of
diameter D is given by (with vapor properties
at film temperature)
 Cont…
For flat surfaces the correlation is

Where suffix v refers to vapor at film

temperature (Tw+Ts)/2. The radiation
component is given by