Experimental study on two-phase flow pressure drop during ethanol–water vapor mixture condensation in microchannels

Abstract

Ethanol-water vapor mixtures condensation shows different flow patterns in microchannels due to the equivalent surface free energy differences. The transition point of streak flow pattern was introduced in the paper which was found closely related to the frictional pressure drop of ethanol–water vapor mixtures condensation flow in microchannels. Characteristics of two-phase pressure drop for ethanol–water vapor mixtures condensation flow in silicon microchannels of streak and smooth annular flow pattern were investigated. Four types of multi-port trapezoidal and triangular microchannels with hydraulic diameter in the range of 126–155 μm were employed. The pressure drop was determined under steam mass flux between 259.2 and 504.8 kg m−2 s−1 when the inlet ethanol weight concentration varied from 1% to 60%. The experimental pressure drop results were compared with existing correlations of flow condensation. The transition point basing on the streak flow pattern of binary vapor condensation was proposed to replace the traditional Reynolds number criterion of the laminar flow state to turbulent flow state for the frictional factor and the C parameter for Kim and Mudawar’s universal pressure drop model, which is in good agreement with the results the experiment results.