Desalination 169 (2004) 151160

Condensation of steam with and without the presence of

non-condensable gases in a vertical tube
S.B. Al-Shammaria*, D.R. Webbb, P. Heggsb
a
Water Technologies Department, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, PO Box 24885, Safat 13109, Kuwait
Tel. +965 487-8122-4; Fax +965 487-9238; email: sshamari@kisr.edu.kw
b
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST),
PO Box 88, Manchester, UK M60 1QD

Received 19 March 2003; accepted 20 November 2003

Abstract
Condensation of steam and steam from non-condensable gases were investigated experimentally inside a vertical
tube. The consistency and reliability of the measurements were checked by detailed energy balance. The experimental
results show the effect of non-condensable gases on heat and mass transfer resistances in the gas phase of the
condensation process. In the steam runs, the gas side heat transfer resistance was very small and the main resistance
was due to condensate film. This resistance increased significantly for steamair runs, particularly toward the top part
of the tube. This occurred as a result of accumulation of the non-condensable gases near the surface as the condensation
process proceeds, which act as an extra resistance to heat transfer.

Keywords: Condensation; Steam; Non-condensing gases; Vertical tube

1. Introduction
Condensation is important and forms an inte-
gral part of many engineering systems such as
steam power plants and seawater desalination
units. In condensation of pure saturated vapors, it
is generally assumed that the only rate controlling
process is that of heat transfer across the conden-
sate layer. The resistance to heat transfer of the
condensate film is directly proportional to the
*Corresponding author.
film thickness when the flow is laminar, but
lower resistance is found for turbulent flow. The
condensation of binary mixtures produces an
extra heat and mass transfer resistance in the gas
phase. This extra resistance may become very
large if one of the components is a non-
condensing gas. The reason for this is that the
condensation process effectively sweeps the gas
to the surface where it accumulates as a gas-rich
layer. The transfer of vapor to the surface may
then become controlled by the process of

0011-9164/04/$ See front matter 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
152 S.B. Al-Shammari et al. / Desalination 169 (2004) 151160
diffusion, a relatively slow process compared
with convection.
Non-condensable gases effect on steam con-
densation has been extensively studied by many
authors. Minkowyez and Sparrow [1] found that
depending on concentration, a half percent of air
in steam can reduce the heat transfer by 50%.
Sparrow and Marschall [2] improved the theo-
retical study by considering the influence of
temperature difference on the effect of non-
condensable gases on heat transfer coefficients.
Experiments on condensation of steamair
mixtures outside tubes in a horizontal heat
exchanger were performed by Rashtchian and
Webb [3]. They tested different flow patterns and
different operating conditions. Condensation out-
side and inside vertical tubes was analyzed by
Mazzarotta and Sebastiani [4]. The vapor phase
was assumed to contain a single non-condensable
component and any number of condensing sub-
stances. The proposed model was based on film
theory and considered the interactions as due to
diffusion in the gaseous mixture. Forced con-
vection condensation inside a vertical tube was
investigated experimentally and analytically by
Peterson et al. [5]. They derived effective conden-
sation thermal conductivity using a heat and mass
transfer analogy approach. This parameter
allowed the prediction of combined sensible and
condensation heat transfer using standard forms
for heat transfer correlations. This paper focuses
on investigating experimentally the influence of
non-condensing gases on heat transfer character-
istics inside vertical tube.
2. Experimental
2.1. Apparatus
The experimental work was undertaken using
a UMIST heat transfer rig in a university pilot
plant. A schematic diagram of this apparatus is
shown in Fig. 1. The system is composed of three
sub-systems: the test section, the cooling medium
circulation system and power supply. The main
test section (HE-1) is basically 3 m double ver-
tical concentric pipes forming a cylindrical annu-
lus. The inner tube of the annulus is a copper tube
with a 28.25 mm ID while the annulus is made of
stainless steel with 62.7 mm ID. The test appa-
ratus was designed so that the vapor generated in
the boiler enters and exits vertically through the
inner pipe while the cooling water flows counter-
currently in the annulus. The inlet section of the
annulus was designed to allow the cooling water
to distribute uniformly around the annulus before
entering the cooling section. This will ensure
efficient turbulent mixing of the cooling water.
The condenser is equipped with a large number of
tappings used for thermocouple installation and
pressure measurement. These are located at every
inlet to, and outlet from, the test tube. In addition,
a total of 12 thermocouples are incorporated in
the design to measure the temperature in the test
section. Six thermocouples are located at equal
intervals within the outer tube (annulus) to
measure the coolant temperature profile. Wall
temperatures are recorded by six thermocouples,
which are welded into the test tube wall at equal
intervals. The test section was heated by an
electric heater that supplies 36 kW. This heater is
controlled by means of a thyristor. The absolute
pressure and differential pressure over the section
were measured using either a manometer or
calibrated differential pressure (DP) cell. The
system pressure at the top of the test section was
measured using a U-tube mercury manometer.
The measurement of the absolute pressure
required the atmospheric pressure scale. The heat
transfer rig is well insulated and operated under
vacuum, which is obtained by a liquid ring
vacuum pump system.
For experimental work with air, air is fed into
the condenser via a calibrated nozzle box. The
vapor generated in the boiling vessel (V-9) passes
with a known amount of air to the test section
(HE-1) where it is partially condensed. The
uncondensed vapor, which leaves the main test
 S.B. Al-Shammari et al. / Desalination 169 (2004) 151160 153

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the test section.

154 S.B. Al-Shammari et al. / Desalination 169 (2004) 151160

Table 1
Summary of experimental conditions

System Steam Steamair

Pressure, bar 0.160.22 0.190.33

Feed flow rate, kg/h 5.228.49 5.2411.3
Air flow rate, kg/h 0.075 2.34, 4.61
Heat load, kW 3.435.54 1.945.89
Vapor inlet temp., C 56.663.18 52.7365
Vapor outlet temp., C 55.6862.12 43.7757.2
Coolrant flow rate, l/min 1020 1020

section, passes to a total condenser (HE-2), which

is directly cooled by the refrigeration loop. The
condensate produced in HE-1 and HE-2 is either
passed separately to measurement vessels V-3
and V-4 or they are combined. In either case, they
are collected in a condensate buffer vessel (V-5)
and recirculated to the boiling vessel (V-9).
Non-condensing gases are vented from the sys-
tem through a liquid ring pump. Measurements of
temperatures and pressures were taken at various
positions in the flow loop. All measurements of
the thermocouples were collected and viewed
with the SCAN1000 data acquisition system.
When steady-state conditions were reached in the
test section, then the measurements could be
taken by setting the SCAN1000 to record
mode. After completion of the measurements,
the system could be switched back to normal by
setting the SCAN1000 to monitor mode.
The experimental work was carried out
according to the procedures described earlier, and
all runs were conducted under reduced pressure.
Some of these runs were immediately rejected
because they were too close to the flooding point.
The main conditions under which data were
measured are summarized in Table 1.
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the test section.
experimental measurements. The energy balance
is shown in Fig. 2, which shows a schematic
diagram of the test section illustrating the inlet
and outlet streams.
The energy balance calculations are based on
the amount of condensate collected and the
cooling water flow rate. The heat gained by the
cooling water can be calculated directly from the
flow rate of the coolant, which is measured by a
flow meter, the specific heat capacity of the
water, and the inlet and outlet coolant tempera-
tures. The energy transferred from the vapor side
is calculated by measuring the condensation flow
rate and using the latent heat of vaporization of
the condensate mixture. This is corrected by
calculating the sensible heat changes of the vapor
mixture and the condensate, as shown in Eq. (1).
(1)

2.2. Description of energy balance

The overall energy balance of the test section
was carried out to confirm the reliability of the
 S.B. Al-Shammari et al. / Desalination 169 (2004) 151160
The condensate temperature at the bottom of the
test section was estimated using the bottom wall
temperature and the saturation temperature at the
vapor inlet:
(2)
2.3. Energy balance results
An energy balance for each experiment over
the test tube was carried out on the condensing
vapor and coolant pump-around to assess the
quality of the experimental data. Fig. 3 shows that
the energy balance are within 15% for all runs.
There are six measurements of the wall and
annulus temperatures, (Tw)i=1,2,...,6 and (Tcool)i=1,2,...,6,
respectively. The measurement of the change of
enthalpy of the coolant in each interval allows the
heat flux to be evaluated in each interval and the
measurements of wall temperature can be used to
calculate the individual heat transfer coefficients
of coolant and vapor sides in each interval.
Assuming that there are no heat losses to the
ambient, the following expression gives the heat
flux for any interval:
(3)
Fig. 3. Energy balance across the test tube.
155
It is clear from this equation that, once the
heat flux and wall temperatures are known, the
heat transfer coefficients may be evaluated. Now,
if the temperature difference between the wall
and the annulus (Tw,i!Tcool,i) is very high, then the
coolant side heat transfer coefficient "cool,i is very
low and, hence, the resistance to heat transfer is
very high. On the other hand, if (Tw,i!Tcool,i) is
very low, then the condensing side heat transfer
coefficient is very low, and therefore this side
provides the dominant resistance to heat transfer.
2.4. Temperature profiles
Figs. 46 show typical temperature profiles
for steam and steamair experiments, respect-
ively. For pure steam experiments, the change in
the vapor temperature is small and, with the fact
that the vapor phase is never too far from satu-
ration, it follows that the composition of the
steam must remain nearly constant. There is a
small drop in measured vapor temperature that
does not occur in the saturation value and,
therefore, does not arise from the drop in pressure
or increase in the concentration of air with
condensation, but may show a change in the
degree of superheating of the vapor.
The effect of non-condensing gas (air) on the
condensation process is examined by introducing
air into the system through the nozzle box. An air
flowrate of 2.34 kg/h and 4.6 kg/h was used in the
steamair mixture runs.
The change in the vapor temperature is much
greater than that of the steam only runs. This is
expected behavior because of the accumulation of
the non-condensing gases (air) as the conden-
sation process proceeds, which reduces the steam
partial pressure in the gas phase and, hence,
decreases the steam condensing temperature. The
second important observation is that the reduction
in condensation temperature on the vapor side
becomes much larger than in the case of the
steam only runs. This reveals that an extra resis-
tance has been added to the condensing side due
156 S.B. Al-Shammari et al. / Desalination 169 (2004) 151160

Fig. 4. Temperature profile for

pure steam runs.

Fig. 5. Temperature profile for

steamair runs.

Fig. 6. Temperature profile for

steamair runs.
 S.B. Al-Shammari et al. / Desalination 169 (2004) 151160
to the presence of the non-condensing gases, and
this resistance is much larger than that due to the
condensate.
3. Results
3.1. Heat flux variation along the test tube
It is necessary to determine the variation of the
heat flux along the test tube, which, together with
the wall temperature variations, allows an evalu-
ation of the heat transfer resistances present on
both the condensing and coolant sides of the test
tube wall. This flux is inversely proportional to
the magnitude of the overall heat transfer resis-
tance. The condensing side resistance consists of
two parts: the resistance due to the gas film and
the resistance due to the condensate film. Gas
side heat transfer resistance is clearly found in
condensation of a pure vapor from a non-
condensing gas. The gas side resistance vanishes
and can be considered to be negligible in
condensation of a pure vapor. Therefore, experi-
ments with condensation of steam alone are used
to characterize the heat transfer resistance of the
condensate film.
Two approaches were considered: a differ-
ential and an integral approach. They are best
understood by considering the unit to be a single
interval in which inlet and outlet coolant tempera-
tures are known, together with the wall and
annulus temperatures, the latter defining the
temperature driving force. In the differential
approach (the coolant energy balance), Eq. (7)
defines the heat load and Eq. (4) defines the
coolant heat transfer coefficient. In the integral
approach, the annulus temperature is not con-
sidered as measured with sufficient accuracy to
provide consistent behavior, and it is replaced
with the average coolant temperature in the
interval. Thus, in the analysis by the integral
approach, the intermediate measurements of the
coolant temperatures in the analysis are not used.
Since the temperatures of the wall and annulus
of the test section are measured and recorded for
157
six different intervals during experimental runs,
the heat load can be estimated using the following
equation applied in each interval:
(4)
Therefore, there are six heat fluxes to be deter-
mined and used to obtain the known total heat
load on the coolant side:
(5)
In the approach followed, the coolant side heat
transfer coefficient must be assumed to be con-
stant along the length of the test tube. This is a
weakness of the present work because there are
opposing demands on the coolant flow. To ensure
this constancy, it is desirable to have a high
flowrate, fully developed flow and the absence of
developing boundary layers. On the other hand,
there is no chance then to achieve a measurable
temperature change for energy balance purposes
or, more seriously, to provide a uniform and large
temperature driving force without a temperature
pinch.
Unfortunately, since the measured intermedi-
ate coolant temperatures, Tcool,i, did not give
reliable heat loads in each interval, they are based
on the mean of the coolant inlet and outlet
temperatures for the interval:
(6)
For each interval, i, the heat load can also be
determined by the energy balance [Eq. (5)], using
coolant inlet and outlet temperatures by the
following expression:
(7)
Combining Eqs. (4) and (7) gives an expression
158 S.B. Al-Shammari et al. / Desalination 169 (2004) 151160

for the outlet coolant temperature of interval i,

which is the inlet temperature of the next interval
i+1:

(8)

where

Fig. 7. Typical variation of the heat load along the test

(9) tube.

Eqs. (8) and (9) above are solved using an in the concentration of the non-condensing gas
iterative procedure where repeated estimates are (air). The trend is reversed from the case of con-
made of the coolant heat transfer coefficient until densation of a pure species where the heat trans-
the measured and calculated heat loads agree: fer coefficient is smaller at the bottom of the tube.

3.2. Condensate heat transfer coefficients

The local condensate film heat transfer coeffi-
Although differential behavior has been aban-
cient ("cond,i) in each interval of the test section
doned, this approach is considered reasonable.
can be calculated for the steam-only experiments
The rather high coolant flow rates result in rather
from the measurement of local heat flux ( ) and
small coolant temperature changes, and neither
wall temperature, Tw, because there is no gas-side
the averaging process nor the assumption of
resistance to heat transfer:
constant heat transfer coefficient should then be
too serious.
Fig. 7 shows a typical variation of the heat
(10)
load along the test tube for steam-only and
steamair experiments. For steam experiments
where
only, the general trend of all runs shows that heat
load decreases towards the bottom of the test
tube. This is because of an increase in the
condensate film thickness, which increases the
heat transfer resistance on the condensing side.
The presence of non-condensing gas on the
local heat flux along the test tube shows a
reduction in the heat flux toward the top of the This approach is based on the assumption of
tube. This reveals that the condensing side heat negligible gas-side resistance and linear vapor
transfer coefficient decreases sharply toward the temperature profile. The latter assumption is
top of the condenser resulting from the increase reasonable because the exchanger is divided into
 S.B. Al-Shammari et al. / Desalination 169 (2004) 151160
Fig. 8. Variation of heat transfer coefficients from top of
tube for steam-only runs.
Fig. 9. Variation of condensate heat transfer coefficients
from top of tube for steam-only runs.
relatively small increments and the temperature
profile in each stream is essentially linear. The
latter assumption was used to obtain a relation-
ship between gas temperature and tube length,
which can be used to determine the local gas
temperature, Tgi.
Figs. 8 and 9 show the variation of the con-
densate heat transfer coefficient with tube length.
As can be seen in the figures, the calculated
values of ranged from 3,500 to 10,000 W/m2 K.
The general trend shows a decrease in the local
heat transfer coefficient towards the bottom of the
tube. This occurs because the condensate film
originates at the top and becomes thicker toward
the bottom of the tube, which increases the resis-
tance to heat transfer.
159
4. Conclusions
Two sets of data were obtained in the
experimental work. These are the condensation of
pure steam and steamair mixtures under reduced
pressure. Analysis of reflux condenser data
showed agreement with energy balances of 15%
for steam and steamair experiments. The most
significant contribution to the errors is the energy
balance on the coolant side where the temperature
rise is too small to give good precision due to
error in temperature measurement.
Reliable measurements are reported for the
wall temperatures, which characterize the resis-
tances to heat and mass transfer on the con-
densing side.
In the steam runs, the gas side heat transfer
resistance was negligibly small and this explains
why the wall temperature measurements approach
the vapor temperature at the top of the test tube.
When air was introduced, the resistance to heat
and mass transfer on the condensing side in-
creased, particularly toward the top part of the
tube. This was due to accumulation of the non-
condensing gas (air) near the surface as the
condensation process proceeds, which acted as an
extra resistance to heat transfer and decreased the
rate of condensation of steam. In the steamair
runs, the gas side resistance never became fully
controlling, contributing at most about 50% of the
overall resistance. However, near the vapor out-
let, the wall temperature measurements decreased
sharply and sometimes approached the coolant
temperature, showing almost full gas side control.
The heat load distribution along the test tube
showed that, for steam-only runs, most of heat
was removed at the tube outlet. This was due to
the large temperature driving force between the
gas phase and coolant. In addition, the heat and
mass transfer resistances remained nearly con-
stant toward the top of the tube. On the other
hand, for steamair, most of the heat load was
exchanged at the bottom of the tube. This resulted
from the increase in heat and mass transfer
160 S.B. Al-Shammari et al. / Desalination 169 (2004) 151160

resistances toward the tube outlet, which reduced "cool Local coolant heat transfer co-
the heat and mass transfer rates in the top section efficient, W/m2k
of the tube. "
6 cool Average coolant heat transfer co-
Thus, a wealth of reliable data has been efficient, W/m2k
measured that can be used to assess the methods ' Mass flowrate per unit peri-
that are available for the prediction of the heat meter, kg/m s
and mass transfer processes.
Dimensionless groups
5. Symbols Nu Nusselt number
Re Reynolds number
A Heat transfer area, m2
Reg Reynold number of the inlet
cp Specific heat capacity. J/kg.K
vapor
Molar heat capacity, J/kmol.K
Molar latent heat of vaporiza-
tion, J/kmol
Latent heat of vaporization, J/kg References
i Component number
L Length, m [1] W.J. Minkowycz and E.M. Sparrow, Int. J. Heat
Mass flow rate, kg/s Mass Transfer, 9 (1966) 1125.
Molar mass, kg/kmol [2] E.M. Sparrow and E. Marschall, Binary, gravity-
n Number of components flow film condensation. Trans. ASME, 92 (1969)
205211.
q0 Heat flux, kW/m2
[3] D. Rashtchian and D.R. Webb, Condensation of
q0 o Heat flux to coolant, kW/m2 steam from mixtures with air in a shell and tube
q0 s Heat flux towards interface, exchange at atmospheric and reduced pressures.
kW/m2 Chem. Engineer. Res. Design, 65 (1987) 157.
Total heat load, kW [4] B. Mazzarotta and E. Sebastiani, Process design of
sf, st Thickness of heat and mass trans- condensers for vapor mixtures in the presence of
fer films, m non-condensable gases. Can. J. Chem. Eng., 73
T Temperature, C (1995) 456.
T0 Temperature at the wall, C [5] P.F. Peterson, V.E. Schrock and T. Kageyama,
)T Temperature difference, K Diffusion layer theory for turbulent vapor conden-
)TLMTD Logarithmic mean temperature sation with non-condensable gases. J. Heat Transfer,
115 (1993) 98103.
difference, K
[6] W. Nusselt, Surface condensation of water vapor. Z.
Vapor fraction of component i Ver. Deut. Ing., 60 (1916) 541546.
[7] ESDU, Reflux condensation in vertical tube. Engi-
Greek neering Sciences Data Unit. ESDU International Plc,
Item No. 89038, 1989.
"c Condensate heat transfer coeffi- [8] P.L. Kapitsa, Collected Papers by P.L. Kapitsa,
cient, W/m2k Vol. 2, New York, Pergamon Press, 1965.