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Based on the numerical research on the relationship between the flow pattern transition and the condensation heat transfer in circular microchannels, the purpose of this paper is to bring forward a concept of external separation circular microchannel to regulate and control the flow pattern for enhancing the condensation heat transfer.

The numerical research is based on the volume of fluid method and the vapor-liquid phase change model proposed by the present authors.

By numerical research on the condensation process of water in a general circular microchannel, it is discovered that, with the increase of the inlet velocity and the reduction of the temperature difference between the saturation temperature and the channel wall temperature, the bubble detachment frequency is raised and the water vapor condensation length is extended, representing an exponential growth. Therefore, for the condensation process with low temperature difference and high mass flow rate, it is in urgent need to regulate and control the flow pattern.

To prevent the flow pattern in the general circular microchannel converted from annular flow to slug flow and then to bubble flow, this paper brings forward a concept of external separation circular microchannel, which regulates and controls the flow pattern by discharging partial liquid from the annular wall opening. After regulation and control, the flow pattern is converted from original periodic annular flow/slug flow/bubble flow to current stable annular flow. Accordingly, the heat transfer performance is enhanced and the condensation length is lowered remarkably.

The purpose of this study is to model steam condensing flows through steam turbine blades and find the most suitable condensation model to predict the condensation phenomenon.

To find the most suitable condensation model, five nucleation equations and four droplet growth equations are combined, and 20 cases are considered for modelling the wet steam flow through steam turbine blades. Finally, by the comparison between the numerical results and experiments, the most suitable case is proposed. To find out whether the proposed case is also valid for other boundary conditions and geometries, it is used to simulate wet steam flows in de Laval nozzles.

The results indicate that among all the cases, combining the Hale nucleation equation with the Gyarmathy droplet growth equation results in the smallest error in the simulation of wet steam flows through steam turbine blades. Compared with experimental data, the proposed model’s relative error for the static pressure distribution on the blade suction and pressure sides is 2.7% and 2.3%, respectively, and for the liquid droplet radius distribution it totals to 1%. This case is also reliable for simulating condensing steam flows in de Laval nozzles.

The selection of an appropriate condensation model plays a vital role in the simulation of wet steam flows. Considering that the results of numerical studies on condensation models in recent years have not been completely consistent with the experiments and that there are still uncertainties in this field, further studies aiming to improve condensation models are of particular importance. As condensation models play an important role in simulating the condensation phenomenon, this research can help other researchers to better understand the purpose and importance of choosing a suitable condensation model in improving the results. This study is a significant step to improve the existing condensation models and it can help other researchers to gain a revealing insight into choosing an appropriate condensation model for their simulations.

A three‐dimensional numerical analysis was carried out to study in detail the combined heat and mass transfer processes between a moist air flow and a cooled surface when film condensation occurs. A cross‐flow was considered between the air flow and the film flow. A turbulent flow was modelled using the Wilcox k−ω turbulence model. The shape of the interface between the air and the film was treated as a moving boundary, and it was calculated with the assumptions that the interface ways remain an interface, the stress at the interface is continuous and that there is no slip at the interface. Numerical results were obtained by solving simultaneous coupled equations of the air, film and solid. The results show that the condensate film flow has a significant effect on the extended surface temperature distribution and consequently on its efficiency. It is shown that the simultaneous influence of gravity and the air flow on the condensate film results in an asymmetric velocity profile in the film as well as in the asymmetric shape of the film.

The purpose of this study is to improved the efficiency of condensing steam turbines by legitimately reforming the flow structure. It is of great significance to study the condensation flow characteristics of wet steam for optimizing the operation of condensing steam turbines.

A two-fluid model was used to study the wet steam flow in a stator cascade. The effects of the inlet temperature and pressure drop on the cascade performance were analyzed. On this basis, endwall protrusion models were set up at varied axial position on the pressure surface to evaluate the wetness control and loss under different design conditions for cascade optimization.

The analysis indicates that increasing the inlet temperature or decreasing the pressure drop can effectively control the steam wetness but increase the droplet radius. The increasing inlet temperature can delay the condensation and alleviate the deterioration of the aerodynamic performance of cascades. The non-axisymmetric endwall can significantly affect the distribution of steam parameters below its height and slightly reduce the droplet radius. Compared with the original stator cascade, the optimum design conditions reduce the steam wetness by 8.07 per cent and the total pressure loss by 6.91 per cent below a 20 per cent blade height.

These research results can serve as a reference for condensing steam turbine wetness losses evaluation and flow passage optimization design.

This paper aims to extend the hybrid atomistic-continuum multiscale method developed by Vu et al. (2016) to study the gas flow problems in long microchannels involving density variations.

The simulation domain is decomposed into three regions: the bulk where the continuous Navier–Stokes and energy equations are solved, the neighbourhood of the wall simulated by molecular dynamics and the overlap region which connects the macroscopic variables (density, velocity and temperature) between the two former regions. For the simulation of long micro/nanochannels, a strategy with multiple molecular blocks all along the fluid/solid interface is adopted to capture accurately the macroscopic velocity and temperature variations.

The validity of the hybrid method is shown by comparisons with a simplified analytical model in the molecular region. Applications to compressible and condensation problems are also presented, and the results are discussed.

The hybrid method proposed in this paper allows cost-effective computer simulations of large-scale problems with an accurate modelling of the transfers at small scales (velocity slip, temperature jump, thin condensation films, etc.).

The purpose of this paper is to study the condensation flow of wet steam in the last stage of a steam turbine and to obtain the distribution of condensation parameters such as nucleation rate, Mach number and wetness.

Because of the sensitivity of the condensation parameter distribution, a double fluid numerical model and a realizable k-ε-k_d turbulence model were applied in this study, and the numerical solution for the non-equilibrium condensation flow is provided.

The simulation results are consistent with the experimental results of the Bakhtar test. The calculation results indicate that the degree of departure from saturation has a significant impact on the wet steam transonic condensation flow. When the inlet steam deviates from the saturation state, shock wave interference and vortex mixing also have a great influence on the distribution of water droplets.

The research results can provide reference for steam turbine wetness losses evaluation and flow passage structure optimization design.

The flow state of wet steam will affect the thermodynamic and aerodynamic characteristics of steam turbine. The purpose of this study is to effectively control the wetness losses caused by wet steam condensation, and hence a cascade of 600 MW steam turbine was taken as the research object.

The influence of blade surface roughness on the condensation characteristics was analyzed, and the dehumidification mechanism and wetness control effect were obtained.

With the increase of blade surface roughness, the peak nucleation rate decreases gradually. According to the Mach number distribution on the blade surface, there is a sensitive region for the influence of roughness on the aerodynamic performance of cascade. The sensitive region of nucleation rate roughness should be between 50 and 150 µm.

The increase of blade surface roughness will increase the dynamic loss in cascade, but it can reduce the thermodynamic loss caused by condensation to a certain extent.

We present the equations for condensation in cooled upward laminar flow in tubes and consider their solution for low vapour concentrations and variable vapour‐gas thermodynamic properties. We treated the full problem, including coupling with the aerosol size distribution, by using the PSI‐CELL (Particle Source in Cell) method. The particle trajectories start from the point where the particles are generated homogeneous nucleation. Particle size distribution and vapour scavenging by particles are obtained in forced convection and mixed convection regions. Calculations were also conducted with respect to tube diameters.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the time-dependent heat transfer coefficient during FC-72 flow boiling in a 1.7-mm-deep vertical and asymmetrically heated minichannel.

The temperature of the minichannel heated wall was recorded continuously with the use of thermocouples. The heat transfer coefficients for the subcooled and saturated boiling regions at the heated wall–fluid contact surface were calculated from the Robin boundary condition. Both the wall and fluid temperatures were obtained from the solution of the inverse nonstationary problems in two adjacent domains: the heated wall and flowing fluid. The FEM with Trefftz-type basis functions was applied to solve the inverse problem.

The obtained time-dependent heat transfer coefficient in subcooled boiling achieved rather low values, whereas in saturated boiling, the coefficient was the highest at the channel inlet. The boiling curves were plotted to illustrate the results.

The results of experiments are the best source of information for the design of minichannel cooling systems used for thermoregulation of components and heat exchangers. High-tech minichannel heat exchangers are applied in various industrial applications as microelectronics devices, gas turbines, internal combustion engines, nuclear reactors, X-ray sources and organic rankine cycle (ORC) modules.

In the study, the Trefftz functions for the nonstationary Fourier–Kirchhoff equation with the factor describing void fraction were determined and then used to construct the time-dependent basis functions in FEM.

This paper deals with a numerical simulation of the thermal and fluid‐dynamic behaviour of double‐pipe condensers and evaporators. The governing equations of the fluid flow (continuity, momentum and energy) in both the tube (evaporating or condensing flow) and the annulus (single‐phase flow), together with the energy equation in the tube wall, are solved iteratively in a segregated manner using a one‐dimensional, transient formulation, based on an implicit step by step numerical scheme in the zones with fluid flow (tube and annulus), and an implicit central difference numerical scheme in the tube wall, solved by means of the Tri‐Diagonal Matrix Algorithm (TDMA). This formulation requires the use of empirical information for the evaluation of convective heat transfer, shear stress and void fraction. Two criteria to calculate the location of the points of transition between single‐phase and two‐phase flow are tested. An analysis of the different parameters used in the discretization is made. Some illustrative results corresponding to the solution of a condenser and an evaporator using two different working fluids (R–12 and R–134a) are presented.