Combined heat and mass transfer during condensation of vapours mixture and non-condensable gas in a vertical tube

Abstract

The problem of laminar film condensation from binary vapours mixture with the presence of non-condensable gas (air) flowing in a vertical tube is numerically investigated. The set of the non-linear parabolic equations expressing the mass conservation, momentum, energy, and species diffusion in both phases with the boundary conditions are resolved by using a finite difference numerical scheme. A comparative study between the results obtained for three cases (water-ethanol-air, water-methanol-air, and ethanol-methanol-air) under the same conditions is made. The impact of varying the wall temperature, the inlet vapour mass fractions, and the inlet liquid mass flow rate on the conjugate the heat and mass transfer during the condensation of the studied mixtures are examined. It is found that the condensation of water-methanol-air corresponds to a higher latent heat flux QL2 and accumulated condensation rate Mr2 when compared with water-ethanol-air and ethanol-methanol-air. Moreover, the nature of the fluid plays an important role in the heat and mass exchanges.