Convective Heat Transfer II - Condensing

Convective Heat Transfer II

Goals:
By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:
* Understand the more complex phenomena occurring in
condensation and the nature of film heat transfer

* Use empirical correlations to compute estimates for

condensing heat transfer coefficients outside and inside
tubes.
* Become more familiar with commercial heat
exchangers and their pictures, drawings, and applications

Condensing vapors on horizontal tubes

Low Temp Fluid

Low Temp Fluid

where = heat of vaporization and N= number of tubes in a vertical stack

with condensate draining from tube to tube. From a semi-theoretical
analysis of film formation and laminar flow. Fits with an assumption of
film versus drop-wise condensation to be conservative (see MSH
discussion).
Replace 0.73 above with 0.82 for use
with a single isothermal sphere

Bundle Effects On Heat

Transfer
Liquid Condensate
Film
Tubes in
bundle

High vapor velocities,

which often occurs
before most of the
vapor has condensed,
can blow liquid off the
tubes, or at least thin
the film, which
increases the
condensing coefficient.

Condensate
draining from
Condensate draining from
tubes above
tubes above increases
creates constant
condensate level on tubes
rippling and
below, which decreases
turbulence, which
condensing coefficient.
improves
condensing Main Resistance to Heat Transfer on the Condensing Side is
coefficient
the Liquid Film Allows theoretical analysis.

Simplified Calculation of Condensation Outside Horizontal

Tube Bundles in Commercial Heat Exchangers
Use the semi-theoretical equation for condensation on the outside of bare
tube bundles except replace N in the denominator with N2/3.
Evaluate liquid properties at 0.75 X the wall temperature + 0.25 X the
condensing vapor temperature.
For superheated vapor coming into the heat exchanger and low enough wall
temp for wet tube walls (usual and preferred condition), little negative effect
typically occurs on h. Augment for the added enthalpy to be conservative.
Include the added enthalpy change in the energy balance. Maintain TCV TW in
the h eqn. Make analogous adjustment for subcooling.
For mixed vapors and significant condensing curves, may need to partition the
condenser calculation. A simple LMTD will not work in these cases.
For modest sloping tubes, replace g with g (cos ).
Be sure that non-condensibles or incomplete condensation vapor is vented.
Although of limited practical value, Re for these kinds of problems is 4/ as
defined in MSH.

Condensing vapors on vertical tubes:

Low Temp Fluid

Similar semi-theoretical equation as with horizontal tubes is

applied in practice. Allow for de-superheat and subcooling
zones if needed.
Evaluate properties as noted earlier for horizontal tubes.
The above 1.13 (0.943 Nusselt theoretical) recognizes that
while Rec > 1600 falling film is turbulent, the increase in h
begins much sooner with waves and ripples. Gas velocity can
augment h.
Pooling of liquid and subcooling can occur at bottom of tube
bundle. Be sure liquid is effectively drained away from bottom
of tubes and non-condensibles at the top are vented.

Condensing vapors inside horizontal tubes:

Much more complicated than condensing outside the tubes as the condensing
gas flow interacts with the accumulating liquid film that forms inside the tubes.
Mist, annular, bubble, wave, stratified, slugging flow occur. Long tubes can
have dips in them. Can depend on the kind of drainage of liquid into
exchanger head at the end. One rough, empirical approach is to take 2/3 the
h calculated for condensation outside the tubes (Kern, Cato) if commercial
software not available.

Condensing vapors inside vertical tubes

For downflow treat as condensation outside tubes until Rec > 1600, then
treat as Sieder-Tate pseudo-single phase turbulent flow down through rest
of tube with or without a zone of subcooling as needed.
For the upflow knock-back condenser-cooler, inlet gas velocities and
condensed loads must be low to prevent flooding of the tubes. Use film
drainage downflow h. Knock-back shell side condensation can typically
handle larger loads depending on internal tube bundle and baffle design
(usually vertical outside tube h).

Example
Condensers

Horizontal Condensers

Vertical Condensers

Total versus Partial Condensation or

Condensation in the Presence of
Noncondensibles

Venting noncondensibles is important in the design and

operation of condensers

In Lieu of Commerical Condenser Design Programs and

Hand Calculations Use the Following for Condensation h
values in Btu /hr-ft2-degF
Steam
Steam with 10% noncondensibles
Pure Light hydrocarbons
Mixed Light hydrocarbons
Medium hydrocarbons
Medium-Hvy hydrocarbons with steam
Other medium to light organics
Ammonia
Freon-type refrigerants

1500
500
300
200
150
100
200-300
600
400

Because large latent loads can result in very large HXs, various
augmented condensing surfaces like small fins and fluted tubes
have been deployed to increase contact area and effective h (10X)

Application Notes
* The wall temperature, Tw, is an unknown but can be estimated using h.
However, we need Tw to compute h. Thus, computation of film coefficients for
condensing vapors is usually iterative as it is for many other heat transfer
calculations.
* Condenser performance can be altered by even very small amounts of
noncondensibles (air, hydrogen) that blanket some of the tube area. Often the
condenser type and orientation is selected based on removing noncondensibles,
or gases left over from partial condensation. Tube-side condensation can be used
to sweep noncondensibles out of the exchanger.
* Mixed vapors that cool and condense over a wide temperature range must be
carefully included in the calculations
* Very high (dry wall) superheat will take more area than condensing area.
* Small subcooling zones are sometimes not explicitly calculated. An
equivalent added condenser area is included from the enthalpy balance.
* Finned tubes are often used in shell-side condensation to reduce exchanger
size.
* Direct contact condensers, quench and spray towers, and large surface
condensers (incl ejectors) require special hardware and design techniques.