Recently,our research group proposed the phase separation condenser tube,in which a mesh cylinder was inserted to form the flow structure of‘‘gas near the tube wall and liquid in the tube core’’,significantly enhance the condensation heat transfer.But the bubble leakage towards the core region may worsen the heat transfer enhancement.In order to prevent the bubble leakage,the critical criterion was proposed based on the Young–Laplace equation,considering the inertia force,viscous force and pulsating flow.It was found that the critical criterion depends on the dimensionless parameter G*,the We number and a coefficient C.The numerical model was developed in terms of the volume of fluid method to predict the two-phase laminar flow in the phase separation condenser tube.The results show that the bubble leakage takes place at the bubble tip,which is agreed with the experimental observations.The critical curve distinguishing the non-bubble-breaking and bubble-breaking was obtained by comparing the bubble dynamics at different G*and We.The coefficient C was determined.The critical criterion for the bubble leakage is given as G We0:22We0:99349 G4:7 103 We0:00651t196:39We0:006514cosa DHW,providing the design and operation guidance for the phase separation condenser tube.
The passive phase separation concept was proposed to modulate flow patterns for heat transfer enhancement. By the flow pattern modulation, the gas tends to be near the wall and the liquid tends to be in the tube core. Experiment has been performed to verify the fresh idea and the flow pattern modulation mechanism was analyzed qualitatively. This paper focuses on the numerical simulation of the bubble dynamics for a single bubble in the vertical phase separation condenser tube to quantitatively explore the flow pattern mechanism, based on a multiscale grid system and the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method. It is found that: (1) the modulated liquid film thickness can be decreased by 70% compared to that in the bare tube region; (2) the modulated bubble traveling velocity can be doubled, causing the increased liquid velocity and velocity gradient in the annular region to weaken the fluid boundary layer; (3) the significantly increased bubble traveling velocity in the annular region promotes the mass and momentum exchange between the annular region and the core region, and yields the self-sustained pulsating flow in the core region. The above three factors are benefit for the performance improvement of the heat transfer facilities.
