Time-dependent characteristics of the nonequilibrium condensation in subsonic flows

High-speed moist air or steam flow has long been of important subject in engineering and industrial applications. Of many complicated gas dynamics problems involved in moist air flows, the most challenging task is to understand the nonequilibrium condensation phenomenon when the moist air rapidly expands through a flow device. Many theoretical and experimental studies using supersonic wind tunnels have devoted to the understanding of the nonequilibrium condensation flow physics so far. However, the nonequilibrium condensation can be also generated in the subsonic flows induced by the unsteady expansion waves in shock tube. The major flow physics of the nonequilibrium condensation in this application may be different from those obtained in the supersonic wind tunnels. In the current study, the nonequilibrium condensation phenomenon caused by the unsteady expansion waves in a shock tube is analyzed by using the two-dimensional, unsteady, Navier-Stokes equations, which are fully coupled with a droplet growth equation. The third-order TVD MUSCL scheme is applied to solve the governing equation systems. The computational results are compared with the previous experimental data. The time-dependent behavior of nonequilibrium condensation of moist air in shock tube is investigated in details. The results show that the major characteristics of the nonequilibrium condensation phenomenon in shock tube are very different from those in the supersonic wind tunnels.