Convective Filmwise Condensation of R-11 inside a Vertical Tube

Partial condensation of refrigerant R-11 was experimentally and theoretically studied. The test apparatus consisted of two concentric tubes, with the vapor flowing downward in the inner tube and the cooling water in the annular space in countercurrent direction. By using the available dimensionless correlation, the mean heat transfer coefficient of the cooling water was determined, and then the mean condensationheat transfer coefficient was calculated from the overall heat transfer coefficient.The model of a homogeneous two-phase mixture of liquid and vapor, and Prandtl’s principle of analogy between the momentum and heat transfer were used to establish the type of the correlation. Adopting the methods of the gradually linear regression and F-level evidence testing, the present paper proposed the dimensionless correlation to predict the relationship among the mean Nusselt number, Prandtl number, Kutateladze number and the dimensionless tube length.