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Condensation
• Condensation occurs when the temperature
of a vapor is reduced below its saturation
temperature.
• Only condensation on solid surfaces is
considered in this chapter.
• Two forms of condensation:
– Film condensation,
– Dropwise condensation.

Film condensation Dropwise condensation

• The condensate wets the
surface and forms a liquid
film.
• The surface is blanketed by
a liquid film which serves as
a resistance to heat transfer.
• The condensed vapor forms
droplets on the surface.
• The droplets slide down
when they reach a certain
size.
• No liquid film to resist heat
transfer.
• As a result, heat transfer
rates that are more than 10
times larger
than with film
condensation
can be achieved.

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Dropwise Condensation
• One of the most effective mechanisms of heat
transfer, and extremely large heat transfer
coefficients can be achieved.
• Small droplets grow as a result of continued
condensation, coalesce into large droplets, and slide
down when they reach a certain size.
• Large heat transfer
coefficients enable designers
to achieve a specified heat
transfer rate with a smaller
surface area.

Film Condensation on a Vertical Plate

• liquid film starts forming at the top of the
plate and flows downward under the
influence of gravity.
• δ increases in the flow direction x
• Heat in the amount hfg is released during
condensation and is transferred through the
film to the plate surface.
• Ts must be below the saturation temperature
for condensation.
• The temperature of the condensate is Tsat at
the interface and decreases gradually to Ts at
the wall. Therefore, the actual heat transfer
will be larger.

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Rohsenow showed that the cooling of the liquid below the

saturation temperature can be accounted for by replacing hfg by
the modified latent heat of vaporization hfg* defined as

There may have similar argument for vapor that enters the condenser as
superheated vapor at a temperature Tv instead of as saturated vapor. In this
case the vapor must be cooled first to Tsat before it can condense, and this heat
must be transferred to the wall as well.
The amount of heat released as a unit mass of superheated vapor at a
temperature Tv is cooled to Tsat is simply Cpv(Tv - Tsat), where Cpv is the specific
heat of the vapor at the average temperature of (Tv + Tsat)/2.

The modified latent heat of vaporization in this case becomes

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Ver+cal Plate ─ Flow Regimes

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Ver+cal Plate ─ Flow Regimes

• The dimensionless parameter
controlling the transition between
regimes is the Reynolds number
defined as:
hydraulic diameter ( Dh )
}
Re x =
( 4δ ) ρlVl
µl
• Three prime flow regimes:
– Re<30 ─ Laminar (wave-free),
– 30<Re<1800 ─ Wavy-laminar,
– Re>1800 ─ Turbulent.
• The Reynolds number increases in the
flow direction.

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Heat Transfer Correlations for Film

Condensa+on ─ Ver+cal wall
Assumptions:
1. Both the plate and the vapor are
maintained at constant temperatures of Ts
and Tsat, respectively, and the temperature
across the liquid film varies linearly.
2. Heat transfer across the liquid film is by
pure conduction.
3. The velocity of the vapor is low (or zero)
so that it exerts no drag on the condensate
(no viscous shear on the liquid–vapor
interface).
4. The flow of the condensate is laminar
(Re<30) and the properties of the liquid
are constant.
5. The acceleration of the condensate layer is
negligible.
Height L and width b

Hydrodynamics
• Netwon’s second law of motion:

Weight=Viscous shear force +Buoyancy force

or du
ρl g (δ − y )( bdx ) = µl ( bdx ) + ρv g (δ − y )( bdx ) (1)
dy
• Canceling the plate width b and solving for du/dy
du g ( ρl − ρ v )(δ − y )
=
dy µl
• Integrating from y=0 (u =0) to y (u =u(y))
g ( ρl − ρ v )  y2 
u( y) =  yδ −  (2)
µl  2 

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• The mass flow rate of the condensate at a

location x is determined from
δ
m& ( x) = ∫ ρl u ( y )dA = ∫ ρl u ( y )bdy (3)
A y =0

Substituting u(y) from Eq. 2 into Eq. 3

gbρl ( ρl − ρ v ) δ 3
m& ( x) = (4)
3µl

whose derivative with respect to x is

dm& gb ρl ( ρl − ρ v ) δ dδ
2

= (5)
dx µl dx

Thermal Considerations
• The rate of heat transfer from the vapor to the
plate through the liquid film

T −T
dQ& = h fg dm& = kl ( bdx ) sat s
δ
dm& kl b Tsat − Ts
→ = (6)
dx h fg δ

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• Equating Eqs. 5 and 6 and separating the

variables give
µl kl (Tsat − Ts )
δ 3dδ = dx (7)
g ρl ( ρl − ρv ) h fg

• Integrating from x =0 (δ=0) to x (δ=δ(x)), the

liquid film thickness at x is determined to be
14
 4 µ k (T − T ) x 
δ ( x) =  l l sat s  (8)
 g ρl ( ρl − ρv ) h fg 

• Since the heat transfer across the liquid film is assumed to be by

pure conduction, the heat transfer coefficient can be expressed
through Newton’s law of cooling and Fourier law as
Tsat − Ts kl
q& x = hx (Tsat − Ts ) = kl → hx = (9)
δ δ
• Substituting δ(x) from Eq. 8, the local heat transfer coefficient is
determined to be
14
 g ρl ( ρl − ρv ) h fg kl3 
hx =   (10)
 4 µl (Tsat − Ts ) x 

• The average heat transfer coefficient over the entire plate is

14
1 L 4  g ρl ( ρl − ρv ) h fg kl3 
h = ∫ hx dx = hx = L = 0.943   (11)
L 0 3  µl (Tsat − Ts ) L 

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• It is observed to underpredict heat transfer

because it does not take into account the
effects of the nonlinear temperature profile in
the liquid film and the cooling of the liquid
below the saturation temperature.
• Both of these effects can be accounted for by
replacing hfg by modified h*fg to yield
14
1 L 4  g ρl ( ρl − ρv ) h*fg kl3 
h = ∫ hx dx = hx = L = 0.943   (12)
L 0 3  µl (Tsat − Ts ) L 
0 <Re<30

• When ρv«ρl (and thus ρl-ρv≈ρl). Using this

approximation and substituting Eqs. 4 and 8 at x =L into
the Reynolds number definition by noting that
δx=L=kl/hx=L and havg=4/3hx=L (Eqs. 9 and 11) give
3 3
4 g ρl ( ρl − ρ v ) δ 3 4 g ρl2  kl  4 g  kl 
Re ≅ = 2   = 2  
3µl2 3µl  hx = L  3ν l  3havg / 4  (13)
• Then the average heat transfer coefficient in terms of
Re becomes
1/ 3
−1/ 3  g 
havg ≅ 1.47 kl Re  2 ρ v << ρ l (14)
νl 
• The results obtained from the theoretical relations
above are in excellent agreement with the
experimental results.

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Wavy Laminar Flow on Vertical Plates

• The waves at the liquid–vapor interface tend to
increase heat transfer.
• Knowledge is based on experimental studies.
• The increase in heat transfer due to the wave effect
is, on average, about 20 percent, but it can exceed 50
percent.
• Based on his experimental studies, Kutateladze (1963)
recommended the following relation
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Re kl  g 
havg , wavy =   ; ρv << ρl
1.08 Re − 5.2  ν l2 
1.22

Turbulent Flow on Vertical Plates

• Labuntsov (1957) proposed the following relation
for the turbulent flow of condensate on vertical
plates: 1/ 3
Re kl  g 
havg ,turbulent  2
8750 + 58 Pr −0.5
( Re 0.75
)
− 253  ν l 

• The physical properties of the condensate are to

be evaluated at the film temperature.

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Nondimensionalized Heat Transfer

Coefficients

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