Experimental investigation of shell-side steam pressure drop in crossflow in a horizontal falling-film tube bundle

Abstract

An experimental investigation of the steam flowing across a horizontal tube bundle with liquid falling film was conducted to simulate flow characteristics in a large desalination plant. Experiments were conducted at pressure ranging from 12 kPa to 31 kPa with the corresponding saturated steam temperature of 50 °C to 70 °C and the falling film spray density of 0.02 kg·m-1·s-1 to 0.08 kg·m-1·s-1. The influence of the spray density, saturated temperature and tube bundle geometry structure on steam pressure drop was illustrated. The results indicate that the pressure drop increased with increasing spray density, but decreased with increasing saturated temperature. The pressure drop at the maximum spray density of 0.08 kg·m-1·s-1 can be three times that in spray density of 0.02 kg·m-1·s-1 and the pressure drop at 50 °C is almost twice that at 70 °C. Under the same condition, the pressure drop through a rotated square- arranged tube bundle was smaller than that through a regular triangular-arranged tube bundle.