Numerical Study of Condensation Heat Transfer and Droplet Dynamics on Different Wetting Surfaces of Gas Transportation Pipelines

Abstract

In this work, numerical investigation of condensation on a horizontal pipe which has various wettability properties analyzed. The influence of droplet size and contact angle on the performance of heat transfer is investigated. The condensation heat transfer obtained using MATLAB software to find the optimum function that enhances the performance. The wetting behavior is discussed under the atmospheric condition by considering the non-condensable gas. The effect of thermal boundary layers resulted from the droplet conduction, interfacial, coating, non-condensable gas, convection heat transfer was considered as well. The heat transfer rate is influenced by the droplet diameter for both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces. The heat transfer rate increased by 30% when the droplet diameter is 1.5 mm than the droplet diameter is 2.5mm. The contact angle has affected the performance of heat transfer on hydrophilic surfaces.