Turbulence and heat exchange in condensing vapor-liquid flow

Abstract

Turbulence and heat exchange during condensation of a vapor stream countercurrently flowing to a subcooled liquid stream in a slightly inclined channel has been investigated by direct numerical simulation (DNS). Condensation rates and imposed pressure gradients have been varied, and capillary-gravity waves have been allowed to develop at the (deformable) vapor-liquid interface. These simulations extend our previous DNS of turbulence and scalar exchange in stratified gas-liquid flows without condensation. The previous studies indicated that for conditions in which the gas-liquid interface remained continuous, i.e., did not “break,” scalar exchange rates on both the gas and liquid sides were largely determined by sweeps which brought high momentum fluid from the bulk flow to the interface. As sweep frequencies were found to scale with interfacial friction velocities, scalar exchange coefficients could be parametrized with a surface renewal theory. The issue addressed in the current work is how these findings are altered by condensation which acts somewhat like suction through a wall on the vapor side and injection through a wall on the liquid side. Both suction and injection have been found to affect shear stresses, turbulence characteristics, and scalar exchange rates, and hence similar effects might be expected during condensation. The present simulations indicate that the turbulence characteristics in both phases are affected, with turbulence intensities and Reynolds stresses being enhanced on the vapor side and attenuated on the liquid side. For a given imposed pressure gradient, the interfacial shear stress decreases as a result of the interfacial momentum exchange due to condensation. Interfacial waves are also found to be damped by condensation and the streamwise vortical structures on the liquid side are attenuated. The frequencies of sweeps and ejections, however, do scale with the interfacial friction velocity, reduced due to condensation, as does the liquid-side heat transfer coefficient. The simulations indicate that the scaling relationship between the interfacial friction velocity and the liquid-side heat transfer coefficient is similar to that in the absence of condensation, although the interfacial friction velocity itself is different, being dependent on condensation rates. As condensation rates depend in turn on the liquid-side heat transfer, their prediction becomes a coupled problem. A procedure for determining condensation rates as a function of imposed pressure gradient and liquid subcooling is derived from the simulations.