- home
- about
- founder & publisher
- editorial boards
- advisory board
- for authors
- call for papers
- archive
- online first
- editorial policy
- participation fee
- contacts
THERMAL SCIENCE
International Scientific Journal
Find this paper on
A NUMERICAL STUDY ON CONDENSATION HEAT TRANSFER AND PRESSURE DROP CHARACTERISTICS OF LOW PRESSURE VAPOR IN A PLATE HEAT EXCHANGER
ABSTRACT
In this work, the condensation heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of plate heat exchangers were simulated, and the 3-D temperature, pressure, and velocity fields were obtained. From the flow field, we can see that the velocity of vapor is higher than that of condensate. From the pressure field, we can see that the pressure shows a downward trend along the flow direction, and there is, the more pressure drop in the first half of the plate. From the temperature field, we can see that the temperature gradient increases with the increase of velocity and pressure gradient. Meanwhile, the effect of vapor mass-flow, dryness and super-heat on condensation heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops were investigated. The results show that the pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient both increase with the increase of dryness, degree of superheat and mass-flow. In addition, the correlation equations developed to predict the condensation heat transfer and friction factor perfectly agree with the experimental results.
KEYWORDS
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2019-09-14
PAPER REVISED: 2020-02-03
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2020-03-10
PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2020-03-08
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI190914095Z
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
REFERENCES
[1] Wang, L., et al., Plate Heat Exchangers e Design, Applications and Performance, WIT Press, South-ampton, UK, 2007
[2] Thome, J. R., et al., Two-Phase Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop Within Plate Heat Exchangers, Encycl. Two-Phase Heat Transf., Flow II (2015), Oct., pp. 145-215
[3] Sarraf, K., et al., Complex 3D-Flow Analysis and corruGation Angle Effect in Plate Heat Exchangers, Int. J. Therm. Sci., 94 (2015), Aug., pp. 126-138, 10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2015.03.002
[4] Lee, J., Lee, K. S., Flow Characteristics and Thermal Performance in Chevron Type Plate Heat Ex-changers, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf., 78 (2014), Nov., pp. 699-706, 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2014.07.033
[5] Gherasim, I., et al., Heat Transfer and Fluid-flow in a Plate Heat Exchanger Part II: Assessment of Lam-inar and Two-Equation Turbulent Models, Int. J. Therm. Sci., 50 (2011), 8, pp. 1499-1511, 10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2011.03.017
[6] López-Belchí, A., Illán-Gómez, F., Evaluation of a Condenser Based on Mini-Channels Technology Working with R410A and R32. Experimental Data and Performance Estimate, Appl. Energy, 202 (2017), Sept., pp. 112-124, 10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.05.122
[7] Abadi, S. M. A. N. R., et al., Numerical Simulation of Condensation Inside Inclined Smooth Tube, Chem. Eng. Sci., 182 (2018), June, pp. 132-145, 10.1016/j.ces.2018.02.043
[8] Abadi, S. M. A. N. R., et al., Numerical Investigation of Condensation Inside an Inclined Smooth Tube, in: Proceedings, 13th Int. Conf. Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Portoroz, Slove-nia, 2017, pp. pp. 572-576
[9] Longo, G.A., et al., Condensation of the Low GWP Refrigerant HFO1234ze (E) Inside a Brazed Plate Heat Exchanger, Int. J. Refrig., 38 (2014), Feb., pp. 250-259, 10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2013.08.013
[10] Jokar, A., et al., Dimensional Analysis on the Evaporation and Condensation of Refrigerant R-134a in Mini-channel Plate Heat Exchanger, Appl. Therm. Eng., 26 (2006), 17-18, pp. 2287-2300
[11] Wang, L. K., et al., Pressure Drop Analysis of Steam Condensation in a Plate Heat exchanger, Heat Transfer Eng., 20 (1999), 1, pp. 71-77, 10.1080/014576399271727
[12] Han, X. H., et al., A Numerical and Experimental Study of Chevron, Corrugated-Plate Heat Exchangers, Int. Commun. Heat Mass. Transf., 37 (2010), 8, pp. 1008-1014, 10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2010.06.026
[13] Shi, Z. Y., et al., Experimental Investigation on Condensation Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of R134a in a Plate Heat Exchanger, Heat Mass. Tran., 46 (2010), 10, pp. 1177-1185, 10.1007/s00231-010-0699-y
[14] Nusselt, W., The Condensation of Steam on Cooled Surfaces, Z Des Vereines Dtsch Ingenieure, 60 (1916), pp. 541-575
[15] Bromley, L., Effect of Heat Capacity of Condensate, Ind. Eng. Chem., 44 (1952), 12, pp. 2966-2969, 10.1021/ie50516a052
[16] Jokar, A., et al., Condensation Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Brazed Plate Heat Exchangers Using Refrigerant R134a, J. Enhanced Heat Transfer, 11 (2004), 2, pp. 161-182, 10.1615/jenhheattransf.v11.i2.50
[17] Kuo, W. S., et al., Condensation Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Refrigerant R410A Flow in a Ver-tical Plate Heat Exchanger, Int. J. Heat Mass. Transfer, 48 (2005), 25-26, pp. 5205-5220, 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2005.07.023
[18] Hirt, C. W., Nichols, B. D., Volume of Fluid (VOF) Method for the Dynamics of Free Boundaries, J. Comput. Phys., 39 (1981), 1, pp. 201-225, 10.1016/0021-9991(81)90145-5
[19] Brackbill, J., et al., A Continuum Method for Modeling Surface Tension, J. Comput. Phys., 100 (1992), 2, pp. 335-54, 10.1016/0021-9991(92)90240-y
[20] Lee, W. H., A Pressure Iteration Scheme for Two-Phase Flow Modeling, Hemisphere, Washington DC, 1980, 10.1142/9789814460286_0004
[21] Alexiades, V., Solomon, A. D., Mathematical Modeling of Melting and Freezing Processes, Hemisphere Publishing, Washington DC, USA, 1993, 10.1201/9780203749449
[22] Wang, Z., et al., Flowing Condensation Heat Transfer Law of Steam in Complex Channels, Journal of Engineering Thermophysics 16 (1995), 1, pp. 70-74
© 2026 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence