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ISSN Online: 2377-424X

ISBN Print: 0-89116-559-2

International Heat Transfer Conference 8
August, 17-22, 1986, San Francisco, USA

TURBULENT FILM CONDENSATION ON A VERTICAL PLATE

Get access (open in a dialog) DOI: 10.1615/IHTC8.10
pages 1601-1606

Abstract

Many correlations have been proposed for turbulent film condensation to calculate the heat transfer coefficient. Most of them predict that the Nusselt number increases with an increase in the Reynolds number. Experimental evidence suggests, however, that damping of turbulent eddies may occur at the liquid surface, resulting in a constant Nusselt number over a wide range of high condensate flow rates. In this paper, a model for the turbulence damping mechanism is proposed. Numerical results from the proposed model indicate that the heat transfer coefficient increases first by the transition from laminar to turbulent flow. As the liquid film grows further, the proposed model predicts that the average Nusselt number approaches a constant value. A correlation for the prediction of Nusselt number is proposed and is shown to be in agreement with experiment data.