Numerical Simulation of Condensation of Upward Flow in a Vertical Pipe
A transient three-dimensional volume of fluid (VOF) simulation on condensation of upward flow of wet steam inside a 12 mm i.d. vertical pipe is presented. The effect of gravity and surface tension are taken into account. A uniform wall heat flux have been fixed as boundary conditions. The mass flux is m=130∼6000 kg m−2 s−1 and the turbulence inside the vapor phase and liquid phase have been handled by Reynolds Stress (RS) model. The vapor quality of fluid x=0∼0.4. The numerical simulation results show that in all the simulated conditions only the bubbly flow, slug flow, churn flow and annular flow are observed, in addition the results of flow pattern are in good agreement with the regime map from Hewitt and Roberts. The typical velocity field characteristic of each flow pattern and the effect of velocity field on heat transfer of condensation are analyzed. It can be found that only slug flow has an obvious local eddy around the slug gas in all simulated flow patterns. The trend of heat transfer coefficients rises throughout with the increase of vapor quality for all simulated conditions, which is good agreement with the correlation from Boyko and Kruzhilin.