Experimental Investigation Into Condensation on Heterogeneous Surface
Author | : Ramana Saketh Vanga |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 100 |
Release | : 2014 |
ISBN-10 | : OCLC:1078221212 |
ISBN-13 | : |
Rating | : 4/5 (12 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: Renewable energy systems operated by a thermal energy resource such as geothermal power plants and solar thermal power systems are demanding improvement in their condensation performance. While their energy resources are naturally obtained at almost no cost, heat rejecting components are relatively expensive to maintain and operate. In this research, a heterogeneous condensing surface is proposed to enhance the condensation heat transfer coefficient in vapor-to-liquid heat exchangers. Parallel stripes with hydrophobic feature and ones without it alternate on its surface. The effect of surface wettability variation that is generated by the heterogeneous surface on the dropwise condensation heat transfer of saturated steam on the flat plate copper surface is experimentally investigated. A vertical flat plate condenser is constructed to evaluate the performance of the heterogeneous condensing surface in comparison with a plain copper sample and a homogeneous hydrophobic-treated copper sample. Experimental results show that condensation heat transfer of steam on the homogeneous hydrophobic-treated sample is superior to that of the plain copper surface despite the fact that both the surfaces stably promote dropwise condensation. At the subcooling temperature of 3°C, the difference in the heat transfer coefficients between the plain copper sample and the hydrophobic-treated copper sample is almost twofold. The heat transfer coefficients for the heterogeneous surface at smaller subcooling temperatures, when its stripes situate horizontally, are as high as the heat transfer coefficients for the homogeneous hydrophobic-treated surface. The enhancement for the horizontal heterogeneous sample over the plain copper sample is approximately 100%. The heat transfer coefficient for the heterogeneous sample with its stripes being vertical at 4°C subcooling is 25% greater than that of the plain copper sample. Higher heat transfer coefficients are observed at smaller subcooling temperatures for all the samples. The results and observations of this project suggest that the heterogeneous surface has the potential to enhance the heat transfer coefficients.