Humidification of air with warm water at elevated pressure in wetted-wall column

Abstract

A comprehensive analysis of pressurized air humidification in wetted-wall column has been carried out. A developed mathematical model consists of mean flow conservation equations with a full account of variable properties and gas-liquid interfacial thermodynamics, in which a low-Reynolds number к − ε turbulence model in conjunction with combined heat and mass transfer analysis. The influence of various high-pressure phenomena (including property variation, thermodynamic non-ideality etc.) on gas-liquid heat and mass transfer is numerically examined in detail. Results are presented for air-water under different conditions. Particular attention is paid to investigating the variation of the local Nusselt and Sherwood number of gas. The results show that buoyancy force caused by properties variation will reduce the local heat and mass transfer coefficients, and that the extent of reduction in local heat and mass transfer coefficients increases with operate pressure and inlet temperature difference between gas and liquid.