CONDENSATION AND BOILING

If the vapor strikes a surface which is at a temperature below the corresponding saturation
temperature, the vapor will immediately condense into the liquid phase. This process is called as
condensation.

If the condensation takes place continuously over the surface which is kept cooled by some
cooling surface and the condensed liquid is removed from the surface by the motion of gravity,
then the condensing surface is usually covered with a thin layer of liquid, and the situation is
called Filmwise Condensation.

If the film of condensate is broken into droplets, then the situation is called Dropwise
condensation. It occurs when, the traces of oil are present during the condensation of steam on a
highly polished surface, the film is broken into droplets.

The presence of the condensate acts as a barrier to heat transfer from vapor to metal surface and
the dropwise condensation offers much less resistance to heat flow on the vapor side than the
filmwise condensation.

When a liquid is in contact with a surface maintained at a temperature above the saturation
temperature of the liquid, boiling may occur. The phenomenon of heat transfer in boiling is
extremely complicated because of a large number of variables involved and very complex
hydrodynamic developments occurring in the process.
 FILM CONDENSATION THEORY
When the temperature of the vapor is reduced below its saturation temperature, the vapor
condenses. In engineering applications, the vapor is condensed by bringing it into contact with a
cold surface. If the liquid wets the surface, the condensation occurs in the form of a smooth film,
which flows down under the action of gravity. The presence of this thermal layer develops a
thermal resistance for heat flow. Therefore numerous experimental and theoretical investigations
were conducted to determine the heat transfer coefficients for film condensation over surfaces.
The first fundamental analysis leading to the determination of h during filmwise condensation
of pure vapors on a flat plate & a circular tube was given by Nusselt.

CONDENSATION ON VERTICAL FLAT SURFACE

Consider the condensation of a vapor on a vertical plate, as shown in figure below. Here, x is
the axial coordinate measured along downward direction of plate, and y is coordinate normal to the
condensing surface. The condensate thickness is represented by the symbol .

The assumptions considered for deriving the equation for h are as follows,

The plate is maintained at a uniform temperature Tw that is less than the saturated temperature
Tsat of the vapor.
The vapor is stationary or has low velocity and exerts no drag on the motion of the condensate.
The downward flow of the condensate under the action of gravity is laminar.
Fluid properties are constant.
Heat transfer across the condensate is by pure conduction; hence the liquid temperature
distribution is linear.

DROP WISE CONDENSATION

If traces of oil present in steam and the condensing surface is highly polished, the condensate
film breaks into droplets. This type of condensation is called as drop wise condensation.
The droplets grow, coalesce (join into a single mass) and runoff the surface, leaving a greater
portion of the condensing surface freely exposed to incoming steam.
Since the entire condensing surface is not covered with a continuous layer of liquid film, the heat
transfer for ideal dropwise condensation of steam is much higher than that for filmwise
condensation of steam.
The heat transfer coefficients may be 5 to 10 times greater.
So to promote dropwise condensation various promoters such as Oleic, Stearic, Linoleic acids,
Benzyl Mercaptan have been used.
CONDENSATION IN THE PRESENCE OF NON-CONDENSABLE GASES
(EFFECT OF NON-CONDENSABLE GASES ON CONDENSATION):

If non-condensable gas such as air is present in the vapor, even in very small amounts,
the heat transfer coefficient for condensation is greatly reduced.
The reason is, when vapor containing non-condensable gas condenses, the non-
condensable gas is left at the surface and the incoming condensable vapor must diffuse
through this body of vapor-gas mixture collected in the vicinity of the condensate surface
before the vapor reaches the cold surface to condense.
Thus, the presence of the non-condensable gas adjacent to the condensate surface acts as
a thermal resistance to heat transfer.
The resistance to this diffusion process causes a drop in the partial pressure of the
condensing vapor, which in turn drops the saturation temperature.
High velocities over the condensing surface tend to reduce the accumulation of the non-
condensable gas and to alleviate the adverse effect of non-condensing surface, a
significant reduction in the heat transfer can result.
 BOILING

Boiling occurs when the surface temperature Tw exceeds the saturation temperature Tsat
corresponding to the liquid pressure.

Heat trans fer rate : q s h(Tw Tsat ) hTe

where Te Tw Tsat (excess temperatu re).

Boiling process is characterized by formation of vapor bubbles, which grow and subsequently
detach from the surface.
Bubble growth and dynamics depend on several factors such as excess temp., nature of surface,
thermo physical properties of fluid (e.g. surface tension, liquid density, vapor density, etc.).
Hence, heat transfer coefficient also depends on those factors.

The boiling heat transfer phenomenon occurs in following forms:

Pool Boiling: Liquid motion is due to natural convection and bubble-induced mixing.

Forced Convection Boiling: Fluid motion is induced by external means, as well as by bubble-
induced mixing.

Saturated Boiling: Liquid temperature is slightly larger than saturation temperature.

Subcooled Boiling: Liquid temperature is less than saturation temperature.

POOL BOILING REGIMES

Nukiyama was the first investigator who established experimentally the characteristics of pool boiling
phenomenon. He immersed an electric resistance wire into a body of saturated water and initiated
boiling on the surface of the wire by passing current through it.
The figure illustrates the characteristics of pool boiling for water at atmospheric pressure.
The boiling curve illustrates the variation of heat transfer coefficient or the heat flux as a function of the
temperature difference between the wire and water saturation temperatures.

1). Free convection regime: In this regime, the energy transfer from the heater surface to the
saturated liquid takes place by free convection.
The surface is only a few degrees above the saturation temperature of the liquid.
2). Nucleata boling regime: The nucleate boiling regime in which the bubbles are formed on
the surface of the heater can be separated into two distinct regions.
In the region II, the bubbles start to form at the favored sites on the heater surface, but as
soon as the bubbles detach from the surface, they are dissipated in the liquid.
In region III, the nucleation sites are numerous and the bubble generation rate is so high
that continuous vapors appear. As a result very high heat fluxes are obtainable. In
practical applications, the nucleata boiling is most desirable, because large heat fluxes
are obtainable with small temperature differences.
The heat flux increases rapidly with increasing temperature difference until the peak heat
flux is reached.
This peak heat flux is called Burnout point or Departure from nucleata boiling or Critical
heat flux.
At this peak heat flux, the temperature difference is large, which may cause burning up or
melting of the heating element.
3). Film boiling regime: From figure it is evident that, further increase in temperature
difference after the burnout point results in decreasing heat transfer coefficient. The reason for
this, is that the blanketing of the heater surface with a vapor film which restricts liquid flow to
the surface.
This regime can be separated into three distinct regions.
The region designated as IV is called unstable film boiling. Here the vapor film is
unstable, collapsing and reforming under the influence of convective currents and the
surface tension. Here the heat flux decreases as the surface temperature increases.
In region V, the heat flux drops to a minimum, because a continuous vapor film covers
the heater surface. This is called the stable film boiling.
In region VI, the heat flux begins to increase as the temperature difference increases,
because the temperature at the heater surface is sufficiently high for thermal radiation
effects.
 MASS TRANSFER
If mass transfer takes place in a fluid at rest, the mass is transferred by purely molecular diffusion
resulting from concentration gradients.

When the fluid is in motion, mass transfer takes place by both molecular diffusion and convective
motion of the bulk fluid. In this case, the knowledge of the velocity field is needed to solve the mass
transfer problem.

Definition of mass flux:

There is a mixture of 2 components A & B and the composition is characterized by the molal
concentration of the components. The molal concentration cA of component A is defined as the number
of molecules of component A per unit volume of the mixture and is given by unit kg.mol/m3.

The mole fraction XA of the component A is defined as XA=cA/c, where c is the total molal concentration
of the mixture.

Various velocities in the mixture:

Consider two component mixture whose concentration varies in the x direction and the fluid undergoes a
bulk motion in the same direction. Let uA and uB be the statistical mean velocities of components A and
B respectively, in x-direction with respect to stationary coordinate. The molal average velocity U of the
mixture in the x-direction is defined by,

U = 1/c(uAcA + uBcB).

Where, cA and cB are the molal concentrations of species A and B, c is the total molal concentration of
the mixture.

Diffusion velocity of species A = uA-U

Diffusion velocity of species B = uB-U

Thus the diffusion velocity indicates the motion of species relative to local average motion of the
mixture.

VARIOUS FLUXES IN THE MIXTURE:

The molal fluxes NA and NB of the species A and B, relative to stationary coordinates in the x-direction
are given by,

NA = cAuA and NB = cBuB

That is, NA and NB characterize the moles of species A and B, that pass through a unit area perpendicular
to x-axis per unit time.
The molal fluxes JA and JB of species A and B, relative to the molal average velocity U are defined as,

JA = cA(uA U) and JB = cB(uB U)

That is, the molal fluxes JA and JB are the measure of the diffusion rates of species A and B in the
mixture.

FICKs FIRST LAW:

In a binary mixture in which composition varies in the x-direction and molecular diffusion occurs within
the fluid to the non-uniformity of composition, the molal fluxes JA and JB in the x-direction of species A
and B are related to the concentration gradients by Ficks first law as,

JA = -DAB (dcA /dx) and JB = -DBA (dcB /dx)

Where DAB is the mass diffusivity (or diffusion coefficient) of A in B and DBA is the mass diffusivity of
B in A; they are equal to each other.

DAB = DBA =D.

Mass diffusion takes place in the direction of decreasing concentration; a minus sign is included in
equations of JA and JB to make the mass flux in the positive x-direction a positive quantity when the
concentration decreases in the positive x-direction. Thus when JA is positive, the mass flux of species A
is in the positive x-direction and vice-versa.