Fundamentals of Condensation Heat Transfer : Laminar Film Condensation

Abstract

Theoretical studies of laminar film condensation are reviewed with emphasis on investigations revealing the relative importance of additional complicating factors and providing approximate heat transfer formulas. For natural convection condensation on vertical plates and horizontal tubes, detailed solutions show that simple Nusselt results are highly accurate over a wide range of conditions, with effect of inertia and convection in condensate film and vapor shear stress at the condensate surface generally being of minor importance. For forced convection condensation, a relatively simple result equivalent to the Nusselt equation for natural convection gives the heat transfer with good accuracy for the normal practical ranges of the variables.