Analysis of Steam Absorption by a Subcooled Droplet of Aqueous Solution of LiBr

Abstract

In the absorber of most absorption refrigerating machines, an aqueous solution of lithium bromide at high concentration is irrigated on the horizontal tubes which are cooled by cooling water. To make the mechanism more compact, a spray-type absorber can be considered. The process by which water vapor is transformed into absorbent drops of small size placed in the steam flow is analyzed numerically as a first step towards evaluating performance. From the analysis it is shown that the distributions of temperature and concentration in a droplet are considerably influenced by the circulatory motion which is caused by the contact with the steam flow. The absorption rate increases by about several tens of a percent compared with that for the stagnant droplet, although the increase rate depends upon the Reynolds number and the lapse of time.