CONDENSATION WITH NONCONDENSABLES AND IN MULTICOMPONENT

MIXTURES

Michael K. Jensen
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Aeronautical Engineering and Mechanics
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, New York 12180-3590

ABSTRACT

The condensation rate of a vapor can be significantly reduced if

a noncondensable is present or if the vapor is one component of a
multicomponent system. The reduction is caused by the noncondens-
abIes and/or more volatile components lowering the dew point of the
vapor and by a mass transfer resistance to the condensing component
resulting from a build up of a layer of noncondensables or more
volatile components at the liquid vapor interface. The parametric
trends associated with and the controlling mechanism of condensation
with noncondensables and in multicomponent mixtures are reviewed,
relevant research is discussed, and current design methods are
considered.

1. INTRODUCTION

Condensation of a pure vapor on a cooled wall or on a liquid

surface is characterized by high heat transfer coefficients. Many
experimental and analytical investigations have provided information on
the characteristics of this heat transfer process in both stagnant and
forced convective situations and have suggested many correlations and
techniques by which the heat transfer coefficients can be predicted
for a variety of geometries, flow conditions, and fluid properties.
Reviews (e.g., [1-5]) have discussed many of the advances made in
this field. However, in actual practice, even in supposedly pure fluids
small amounts of noncondensable gases may be present in the
condensing vapor and in the process industry, more often than not,
the condensing fluid is a mixture of two or more volatile components,
possibly with noncondensables present. The presence of a noncon-
densable gas or additional volatile components has a significant effect
on the mechanisms controlling the condensation process and can
dramatically reduce the heat transfer rate. Thus, the objectives of
this paper are to discuss the mechanisms associated with condensation
in the presence of noncondensables and in multicomponent mixtures
and to discuss the techniques used in the design of condensers for
such fluids.

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S. Kaka, et al. (eds.), Two-Phase Flow Heat Exchangers, 293-324.

© 1988 by Kluwer Academic Publishers.
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2. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

Condensation in the presence of noncondensable gases has been

reviewed in few papers (e.g., [6-8]). However, it is evident that much
time and effort have been expended in attempting to quantify the
effects of noncondensables because of the serious deleterious effects
they have on the condensation heat transfer rate. From analytic and
experimental studies, the characteristics of and the mechanism
associated with this heat transfer process are relatively well known.
The condensing vapor carries the noncondensable gas to the interface
where the concentration of the noncondensable increases significantly
compared to the bulk concentration. This gas layer reduces the vapor
pressure of the condensing vapor, thus reducing the driving tempera-
ture potential; the gas layer also presents a resistance to mass
transfer. Both of these effects act to reduce the condensation rate.
The general characteristics of the process are discussed below in
detail in the context of a single condensing vapor and a single
noncondensing gas; many of these characteristics are also applicable
to a multicomponent mixture, but some of the clarity is lost when
discussing more than one condensing component.

2.1 Concentration of Noncondensables

The most striking effect of the presence of a noncondensable is

the dramatic reduction in the condensing heat transfer rate at very
low bulk concentrations of the noncondensable. Collier [9] has plotted
analytic data from [10,11] showing this effect at two different
pressure levels for an air-steam mixture at a given wall temperature
difference. As shown in Fig. 1, a 0.5% mass fraction of air can
decrease the heat transfer rate by over 50%. This is typical of what
many researchers (e.g., [12-28]) have found. Depending on conditions,
the reductions in heat transfer can range from about 10% at a mass
concentration of 0.1% to over 90% at a mass concentration in the range
of 5-10%. While generally there is a reduction in heat transfer with
the presence of noncondensables, Goto and Fujii [29] found an
increase in heat transfer when a small amount of air was added to an
R-12/R-114 binary mixture. They attributed the increase to larger
buoyancy forces. In an analytic study, Taitel and Tamir [30] also
found a situation in which the presence of a noncondensable resulted
in a heat transfer rate greater than that in a pure vapor. For a
vapor in the presence of two different noncondensable gases [31], the
trends in the data are similar to those with only one noncondensable.

2.2 Free Versus Forced Convection

The effect of noncondensables in forced convection condensation

is not as dramatic as in free convection. Rather than a sharp drop in
heat transfer rate with a small amount of a noncondensable and then a
slow tapering off of the heat transfer rate as in free convection,
there is a monotonic decrease in heat transfer rate with increasing
mass concentration of a noncondensable (see Fig. 1). The influence of
the noncondensable is most evident at low velocities and high
noncondensable concentrations. Denny and Jusionis [16] evaluated the
effect of forced convection in binary (methanol-water) mixtures;