Three-dimensional condensation regime diagram for direct contact condensation of steam injected into water

Abstract

Direct contact condensation (DCC) of steam in water occurs in many industrial devices. Crucial to obtain an appropriate design of the device is an accurate understanding and prediction of the condensation regimes. The two-dimensional regime maps presently available are able to predict different condensation regimes for limited flow conditions, but fail to predict regimes accurately if a different injector size is considered. In this paper, a new three-dimensional regime diagram is presented, and validated against experiments. Furthermore, corrections necessary to adopt the regime diagram for steam injection into a water flow are discussed in the paper.