Experimental Study on Enhancement Characteristics of Steam/nitrogen Condensation Inside Horizontal Multi-Start Helical Channels

Abstract The aim of this study was to reveal the internal mechanism of enhanced condensation heat transfer, by experimentally performing steam condensation with higher inlet velocity in the horizontal multi-start helical channels (HMSHCs), and investigating the influences of pressure of steam, mass flowrate of cooling water, and mass fraction of noncondensable (NC) gas on steam condensation performance. Taking steam condensation in horizontal circular condensation channel (HCCC) as a reference, the condensation heat transfer coefficients (CHTCs), the outlet condensate mass flowrates (CMFRs), and the total steam condensation pressure drops (SCPDs) were compared and discussed, respectively. The results indicated that NC gas had a strong inhibitory effect on steam condensation, and average condensation characteristics decreased with the increase in NC gas fraction for lower Rem. But for higher Rem, the gas–liquid interfacial shearing stress can likely weaken the negative effect of NC gas. In addition, increasing the cooling water flowrate can entirety promote steam condensation. The comparison results indicated that steam condensation performance of HMSHC is better than that of HCCC under same experimental conditions. For the specific experimental scope, the average CHTCs and the outlet CMFRs in HMSHC are approximately 2.35 and 1.25 times of that inside HCCC, respectively, while the overall SCPDs in HMSHC are about 1.16 times of that inside HCCC. After introducing the performance evaluation factor, the calculation results revealed that the performance evaluation factor h PEC {h}_{\text{PEC}} of the average CHTCs in HMSHC is approximately 2.02, and the performance evaluation factor m PEC {{m}}_{\text{PEC}} of the outlet CMFRs in HMSHC is approximately 1.08. The two evaluating values are reasonable.