Cooling of very hot vertical tubes by falling liquid film in presence of countercurrent flow of rising gases

Abstract

An experimental investigation of cooling a very hot vertical tube by sudden introduction of a falling liquid film in the presence of a countercurrent flow of rising hot gases air is presented. Experiments were carried out for different rising air flow rates, flow rates of falling liquid film, initial tube temperatures and subcooling of the liquid film. Experiments showed that vapor generated during quenching of the tube can produce a countercurrent vapor velocity which exceeds the onset of flooding limit and any addition of rising air can move the situation to be more closer to zero liquid penetration limit. The results showed that the rewetting velocity (velocity of axial rewetting of the tube hot surface with the falling liquid film) increases with the decrease of initial tube temperature and decreases with the increase of air flow rate until zero quenching rate was obtained. However, the rewetting velocity slightly increased with the increase of the liquid film flow rate and liquid subcooling in case of rewetting without rising air, the presence of rising air finishes the effect of inlet liquid film flow rate and liquid subcooling on rewetting velocity. Air flow rate at which the tube cannot be totally rewetted was determined and compared with that obtained during adiabatic flooding test for the same test section and test conditions. Results were compared with previous ones and good agreement was found.