CLL-251 Heat Transfer (Boiling and Condensation)

Dr. Manojkumar C. Ramteke

Department of Chemical Engineering
IIT Delhi

Reference Textbook: Heat Transfer by B. K . Dutta

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4th Feb, 2021
 Boiling and Condensation
1) Many heat transfer activities in industrial practice involve a change of phase.
2) The rate of heat transfer during boiling or condensation is generally much faster
than the rate of conduction or convection heat transfer.
3) This is because in conduction or convection, transport of heat occurs from a
surface to the bulk of a medium. But in boiling or condensation, the heat transfer
phenomenon is often limited to a very narrow region near the surface. Change of
phase, for example, from liquid to vapor or from vapor to liquid occurs within this
region. Nevertheless, convection plays a major role in heat transfer during boiling or
condensation. Examples of boiling: Power plants, reboilers in distillation column.
Examples of condensation: Condenser in distillation column, condensation of steam
for heat transfer in process plants.

Boling Phenomenon: For a water heated in a beaker from the

bottom
Increase in 1) As boiling proceeds, small vapor bubbles starts forming. Bubble
Temperature collapse before they reach to top
2) Evaporation from the free surface visible
3) Vapor bubbles generated at bottom, grow in size, and rise up
vigorously through the liquid
 Pool Boiling Experiment
1) Consider an experimental set up having an electrically heated wire immersed in the
liquid that supplies the heat required for boiling.
2) The rate of heat input is calculated from the measured values of the applied voltage
and the current.
3) The measurement also gives the resistance of the wire and hence the wire
temperature Ts.
4) The surface heat flux qs can be calculated from the rate of electrical heat input and
the area of the wire.
5) A set of temperature flux data can be generated by changing the applied voltage
over a reasonably wide range.
6) In a boiling liquid, the temperature of the hot surface must be higher than the boiling
point of the liquid Ts (surface temperature) > Tsat (saturation temperature)
7) The temperature driving force for the boiling liquid is the excess temperature Te =
Ts - Tsat

To Voltage Source
Electrically Heated wire

Insulation
 Pool Boiling
Nucleate Film Boiling
Boiling
D G

Interfacial
Evaporation
E F
log hb
C

Hysteresis during cooling

A B

0.1 1 10 100 1000

Te →
1) Section AB: The wire temperature is slightly above the saturation temperature of the
liquid (Te ≤ 2°C). The rate of vaporization of the liquid or the rate of formation of the
vapor bubbles is pretty small. Motion of the liquid medium is caused principally by
free convection. The hot liquid vaporizes only at the free top surface. The regime is
called interfacial evaporation regime.
 Pool Boiling
1) Section BD: This section is characterized by nucleate boiling. Here, the excess
temperature varies from Te ≈ 2 °C at B to Te = 35 °C at D.
2) The nucleate boiling regime may be subdivided into two smaller regimes.
3) Over the section BC (Te ≈ 2 to 6 °C), isolated bubbles are formed at the surface of
the wire, but most of them collapse before reaching the free surface of the liquid.
4) Because bubble formation at a reasonable rate starts at B, this point indicates the
onset of nucleate boiling.
5) Over the remaining section, CD, a large number if vapor bubbles are generated that
vigorously rise through the liquid and escape at the free surface.
6) Near the point D, the vapor bubbles rise as jets or columns and then coalescence
of vapor bubbles also occur because of intense motion generated in the liquid.
7) Section DG: When the excess temperature exceeds that at the point D, the mode of
boiling gradually changes from nucleate to film boiling. Here the bubbles are formed
in so large number that they coalesce right on the heating surface to form a film of
vapor. This greatly reduces the heat transfer coefficient. The film boiling regime may
be sub-divided into regimes DE, EF, and FG.
8) Regime DE: Formation of film is not complete, and film is discontinuous.
Disappears momentarily and again reappear.
9) Regime EF: Stable film is present
10)Regime FG: Radiation starts becoming dominating which increases the heat
transfer.
 Pool Boiling
Critical Heat flux

D G

E F
log qs
C

Hysteresis during cooling

A B

Te →
1) Dancing or bouncing of droplets on a hot pan in a film boiling regime is called
Leiden-frost phenomenon.
 Mechanism of Nucleate Boiling

At the vapor liquid equilibria, Young – Laplace equation for curved surfaces.

Where Pv and Pl are pressure exerted by the vapor and the liquid phases at the
interface, σ is the surface tension of the liquid and r1 and r2 are the principle radii
of curvature of the interface. For r1 = r2 = r (say)

1) The superheated liquid is like a metastable system which cannot go as it is for

long time and any disturbance lead to formation of bubble.
2) In the superheated liquid, the tiny bubble can form in liquid is referred as
homogeneous nucleation and formation of the bubble at the solid surface is
heterogenous nucleation.
3) From the above equation, the pressure inside the bubble is higher than that in
the neighbouring liquid.
 Mechanism of Nucleate Boiling
The pressure difference, Pv - Pl can be related to the liquid superheat by using the
Clausius – Clapeyron equation assuming that the vapor phase behaves like an
ideal gas

Where LV = molar heat of vaporization and R is universal gas constant.

Let us assume that T1 is the temperature of the superheated liquid, Pl is the

pressure in the superheated liquid. Tsat is the corresponding boiling point of the
liquid. The vapor in the bubble is in thermal equilibrium with the liquid i.e., the
vapor temperature is also Tl. As the vapor is saturated, the pressure in the bubble
PV is equal to the vapor pressure of the liquid at the temperature Tl.

substituting (1)
 Mechanism of Nucleate Boiling

(1)
1) The radius of vapor bubble in mechanical equilibrium in the superheated liquid can
be calculated from above equation
2) The above equation also tells us the degree of superheat necessary for the
generation of tiny nucleus in the bulk liquid.
3) However, our experience shows that a liquid boils vigorously even at a superheat
of several degrees. The reason is that bubble nuclei are formed by heterogeneous
nucleation at the minute cavities present at the heating surface

Simple calculations: For pool of water with 10 ºC superheat

at atmospheric pressure
Tl = 110 ºC, Tsat = 100 ºC, Pl = 1.013 bar, σ = 0.063 N/m, LV
= 4.07 ⨯ 104 KJ/kg mol, R = 8.314 KJ/K Kg mol

The bubbles with lower size will collapse

 Correlations for Pool Boiling Heat Transfer
Nucleate Boiling:
1) Liquid boiling equipment in the process industry is designed to operate in the
nucleate boiling regime because it is in this regime that the heat transfer occurs
more effectively.
2) The equipment configuration is mostly of the shell-and-tube type. The liquid boils
either in shell or in the tube and the heating medium is steam or any other hot
fluid.
3) Therefore, the correlations on boiling in or outside a horizontal or vertical tube are
most important for the purpose of design.
4) Factors: Boiling surface, ρ, CP, k, μ, σ and Te. Among these, boiling surface is
difficult to account in the correlation as it changes from system to system.

Rohsenow Correlation:

Csf and n are given for fluid surface combination. For water-stainless steel
(mechanically polished) has Csf = 0.013 and n = 1.0. Prl is the Prandtl number for
liquid.

Mostinski Correlation for heat flux (W/m2 °C):

Critical Pressure Reduced Pressure

 Correlations for Critical Heat Flux
1) The estimation of critical heat flux is very important in the design of a boiling
equipment.
2) If the temperature of the heating fluid is much higher than the boiling of the liquid,
film boiling of the liquid may occur.
3) Therefore, the critical heat flux is calculated first, and the temperature of heating
fluid may be selected accordingly so as to maintain boiling in nucleate regime.

1) Zuber (1958):

Enthalpy of vaporization of liquid

2) Peak boiling heat flux in a horizontal cylinder (Sun Lienhard 1970):

Peak heat flux on an infinite

Dimensionless radius horizontal plate
 Correlations for Film Boiling

1) Bromley (1950), for horizontal tubes:

Tube Diameter

For vertical tubes use 0.7 instead of 0.62 and replace d by L (plate height)

2) If the surface temperature is high enough to make the contribution of

radiative heat transfer important, the total heat transfer coefficient is calculate
as follows

Boling heat transfer coefficient Radiation heat transfer coefficient

 Example 1
1) Consider nucleate boiling (pool) of ethyl acetate at 1 atm pressure. (a) if the
superheat in the liquid is 5 °C, calculate the diameter of a cavity on the boiling
surface which produces a bubble nucleus that does not collapse after release from
the surface. (b) If a cavity has a radius of 1.0 μm, what degree of superheat is
necessary so that the bubble nucleus grows in size after detachment from the
cavity.

For ethyl acetate, Tsat = 350 K at 1 atm pressure

Liquid temperature, Tl = 350 + 5 = 355 K = 82 °C

Antoine Equation:

Vapor pressure in bar Temperature in °C

Surface tension of the liquid given by

LV = 3.3605 ⨯ 107 J/kg mol, R = 0.08314 m3bar/kg mol K

 Example 1

Above this the bubble will not collapse

(b) In this case, r = 1 μm = 10-6 m

For ethyl acetate, Tsat = 350 K at 1 atm pressure

Superheat of liquid = 358 -350 = 8 °C

 Example 2
1) Calculate the rate of boiling of water in a 0.35 m diameter stainless steel pan at 1
atm pressure if the bottom of the pan is maintained at 115 °C.

It is expected that water will boil in the nucleate pool boiling regime at an excess
temperature Te = 115 – 100 = 15 °C. We will first calculate the rate of boiling using
the Rohsenow’s correlation, and then check the results by comparing with the
critical heat flux. Various physical properties involved are taken at the saturation
temperature (100 °C).
For Water at 100 °C: μl = 2.79 ⨯ 10-4 NS/m2, CPl = 4.22 kJ/kg °C, ρl = 958 kg/m3, LV
= 2257 kJ/kg, σ = 0.059 N/m, Prl = 1.76

For Saturated Steam: ρV = 0.5955 kg/m3

For Stainless Steel Pan: Csf = 0.013 and n = 1 (Table 6.1)

 Example 2
The rate of boiling = 462.5/2257 Area of the pan = π(0.35)2/4
= 0.205kg/m2s = 0.0962 m2

The total rate of boiling = 0.205 ⨯ 0.0962 = 0.01972 kg/s = 71 kg/hr

Lets now calculate the critical heat flux

Zuber:

The actual heat flux is much below the critical value. Also, the typical boiling curve
indicate the nucleate boiling for Te = 15 °C

From Mostinski Correlations:

The given pressure = 1 atm = 1.013 bar, Pc = 221.2 bar, Pr = 1.013/221.2 = 0.00458

Heat flux, qs = hb (Ts – Tsat) = hb Te = 22⨯15 = 330 kW/m2

This value is comparable to 462.5 kW/m2 obtained using Rohsenow’s correlation

 Forced convection Boiling
Vapor Out

Single Phase Vapor Flow

Mist Flow

Two-phased
Annular Flow Forced Convection
Tw Tw
Slug Flow

Saturated
Bubbly Boling Nucleate Boiling

Subcooled Boling

Subcooled liquid

In pool boiling, the motion in the liquid is created by the rising vapor bubbles and also
by free convection. Forced convection boiling, on the other hand, is associated with
flow of the liquid along with the vapor bubbles driven by an externally imposed
pressure gradient.
 Condensation Phenomenon
1) Condensation means the change of phase from the vapor to the liquid.
2) If a mixture of a vapor and gas is cooled, the vapor condenses to form minute
droplets suspended in the carrier gas. This is called homogeneous condensation.
3) In contrast, if a vapor or a gas-vapor mixture comes in contact with a cool surface,
condensation occurs on the surface. This is called surface condensation.
4) If the condensate wets the surface, it flows down as a continuous film. This is
called film condensation.
5) However, if the surface is not wetted by the condensate, drops (instead of
continuous film) appear on the surface. This is called dropwise condensation. This
occurs when the surface is contaminated or the condensate liquid does not have
any affinity for the surface.

Higher heat transfer

Even film offers coefficient in dropwise
the heat transfer condensation. Some
resistance part of the surface is
directly exposed to
vapor

Film wise Condensation Dropwise Condensation

 Film Condensation on Vertical Surface
Assumptions:
1) The condensate film is in fully developed laminar flow with zero interfacial shear
and constant liquid properties.
2) The vapor is saturated.
3) Heat transfer through the condensate film occurs by conduction only, and the
temperature profile in the film is linear.
4) Film is assumed to be very wide in the z direction (no variation in the z direction).
Also, unit width is considered in z direction.

y F1 = Shear Force
Tw
F2 = Gravity
y x
δ-y TV, Vapor Temp F3 = Buoyancy Force
F1
dx Control Volume

Force Balance: F1 = F2 – F3
F2 F3
δ(x)
 Film Condensation on Vertical Surface

Boundary Conditions:
Integrating:
u = 0 at y = 0 ⇒ C = 0
Velocity profile in No slip condition at the wall
free flowing film

The rate of flow of the condensate (per unit breadth of the film) at any location x is
obtained by

(1)

Here δ is the local thickness of the condensate film. As x increases downwards,

the film thickness also increases because of condensation of more vapor. The
rate of condensation on an elementary surface of size dx⨯1 exposed to the
vapor can be obtained from the rate of heat transfer through this area. The
temperature profile in the condensate film is assumed to be linear .
where, TV = Vapor temperature
The rate of heat transfer = TW = Wall Temperature
 Film Condensation on Vertical Surface
where, TV = Vapor temperature
The rate of heat transfer = TW = Wall Temperature

Change in the rate of condensate flow over a distance dx is:

(2)

From (1):

From (2):

After integrating:
 Film Condensation on Vertical Surface

If h is the heat transfer coefficient for the condensate film, heat flux through the
film at any location x is

Local Nusselt number:

Average Heat Transfer Coefficient over a Length L:

All properties are calculated at mean temperature = (TV + TW)/2

 Film Condensation on Horizontal Tube
Laminar Flow:

Single Tube:

Condensation Outside
For N tubes placed
directly over one
another:

For a Sphere:

Condensation Inside
Single Tube:
Thank You

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