CT-27 CFD Modeling of Intube Condensation

K. J. Farrell

2011

After briefly surveying the challenges of modeling condensation with computational fluid dynamics (CFD), we apply two relevant two-phase models in ANSYS^® FLUENT^® with varying degrees of success. Homogeneous nucleation in a Laval nozzle is well predicted, while the more interesting and relevant intube film condensation is plagued by grid resolution, model tuning, and convergence issues. We offer an overview of the numerical two-phase models and present some interesting results that underscore HTRI’s synergistic ability to use experimental data to guide adjustments in computational models.