Study of divergence angle influence for sonic nozzle in non-equilibrium condensation

The condensation happens generally in a nozzle during expansion of compressed steam from convergent to the divergent part of the nozzle. The divergence angle is the angle measured from the throat of the nozzle to the outlet. In this paper, the outlet is kept constant and the throat diameter is varied. In turn, the divergence angle of the sonic nozzle is altered. The effect of divergence angle on condensation phenomena is investigated with wet steam in a sonic nozzle. For analyzing the wet steam properties, the non-equilibrium condensation model is used. This model is the classical nucleation theory coupled with the droplet growth rate equation. The base nozzle is designed with the throat diameter of 4.5 mm and other dimensions are calculated according to ASME nozzle formulas. Furthermore, the chosen divergence angles are 3°, 4.2°, and 6° for which the throat diameters are 4.5 mm, 3 mm, and 1.5 mm, respectively. As the divergence angle is gradually increased, the position of maximum Mach number of the flow moves upstream, the static temperature of the flow near the throat reaches the lower value, and the droplet nucleation rate is increased. The condensation shock gets gradually stronger with decreasing the divergence angle.