Pressure oscillation and steam cavity during the condensation of a submerged steam jet

Abstract

Steam jet condensation is important in many industrial applications. In this work, the pressure oscillation and steam jet patterns during submerged jet condensation in quiescent water is investigated experimentally. Firstly, it is found that even at stable condensation region, the steam cavity length varies all the time and steam bubbles separate from the steam cavity periodically. With the variation of steam cavity length and separated bubble oscillation, condensation also undergoes oscillation. Along the axial direction, the pressure oscillation intensity increases first and then decreases gradually. There is an distinct pressure oscillation peak, and the peak position varies over a length-to-diameter ratio range of X/D=2 to X/D=7. The axial position of pressure oscillation peak corresponds to the end of steam cavity. Moreover, oscillation energy analysis shows that the oscillation energy generated by separated steam bubble is much higher than that generated by the steam cavity length variation. Finally, based on the relationship between the axial distribution of pressure oscillation and the steam cavity, a method is proposed to determine the maximum steam cavity length by measuring the pressure oscillation distributions. The predicted deviation is only in range of ±16% for the test conditions.