2002 Volume 19 Issue 4 Pages 313-320
The condensation heat transfer characteristic curves for ternary vapor mixture of water, ethanol and air (or nitrogen) under the ethanol mass fraction of 0.01, 0.07, 0.25, 0.45 and relatively low concentrations of air (or nitrogen) were measured.The effect of air (or nitrogen) as a non-condensable gas on several different domains in the Marangoni condensation characteristic curves was discussed. It was shown that the effect of non-condensable gas in the domains controlled by the diffusion resistance and the filmwise condensation was not notable but in the domain dominated by the condensate resistance of dropwise mode was remarkable. Moreover, the variations of the several characteristic points representing the characteristic curves caused by the change in non-condensable gas concentration were discussed. The deteriorations of the maximum heat transfer coefficient and the maximum heat flux for low ethanol concentration and low concentration of non-condensable gas, in which the excellent heat transfer characteristics were exhibited, were more remarkable.
