Heat and mass transfer characteristics of simulated high moisture flue gases

The heat transfer process occurring in a condensing heat exchanger where noncondensible gases are dominant in volume is different from the condensation heat transfer of the water vapor containing small amount of noncondensible gases. In the process the mass transfer due to the vapor condensation contributes an important part to the total heat transfer. In this paper, the Colburn-Hougen method is introduced to analyze the heat and mass transfer process when the water vapor entrained in a gas stream condenses into water on the tube wall. The major influential factors of the convective-condensation heat transfer coefficient are found as follows: the partial pressure of the vapor p(v) , the temperature of the outer tube wall T-w , the mixture temperature T-g , Re and Pr. A new dimensionless number Ch, which is defined as condensation factor, has been proposed by dimensional analysis. In order to determine the relevant constants and investigate the convection-condensation heat and mass transfer characteristics of the condensing heat exchanger of a gas fired condensing boiler, a single row plain tube heat exchanger is designed, and experiments have been conducted with vapor-air mixture used to simulate flue gases. The experimental results show that the convection-condensation heat transfer coefficient is 1.5similar to2 times higher than that of the forced convection without condensation. Based on the experimental data, the normalized formula for convention-condensation heat transfer coefficient is obtained.