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ISSN Online: 2379-1748

8th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference (TFEC)
March, 26-29, 2023, College Park, MD, USA

EVALUATION OF THREE MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES FOR WATER-VAPOR MASS TRANSFER IN CASE OF DROPLET CONDENSATION

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DOI: 10.1615/TFEC2023.the.046304

Abstract

Mass transfer in moist air flows with droplet condensation is determined by the mutual interaction of convective and latent heat transfer. To characterize the physical mechanisms of such flows, it is necessary to measure the condensation rate precisely. For this purpose, we applied three sophisticated measurement techniques to determine the mass transfer for droplet condensation on a cooled surface. The experimental set-up consists of a rectangular box with mixed convective airflow. Droplet condensation occurs on a subcooled vertical wall, which has a polymer surface with a droplet contact-angle of 80.07(28) degrees. Time series of the total water mass on the surface, the mass transfer-rate, and total heat transfer are measured for an inlet channel Reynolds number of 428 and at relative humidity between 29% and 83% (at 25°C air temperature). The considered measurement techniques are: strain gauges for total water mass, capacitive humidity probes for mass difference between the inlet and outlet of the sample, and microscopy for the droplet distribution. In the work we present the evaluation and comparison of these measurement techniques, and discuss their advantages and disadvantages based on sample results.