Condensation process, from moist airflow over flat plate, is investigated theoretically and experimentally. This process has many important engineering applications, which are concerning with moist air treatment.
In The theoretical analysis of the present work, the flow is assumed to be laminar, steady and of constant physical properties. The process is described by continuity, momentum, energy and concentration partial differential equations expressed in Cartesian coordinates system. Due to the nature of the studied problem and with proper transformation of the problem dependent and independent variables, these governing equations are transformed to set of ordinary differential equations. Accordingly, one can obtain similar solutions of the problem, which are obtained by application of the well-known numerical method Rung-Kutta accompanied with shooting method. According to this solution, the values of Nusselt and Sherwood numbers, for all values of Reynolds number are obtained.
The test section, of the experimental work, is a rectangular duct with cooled bottom. The moist air is forced to flow inside the duct, where some of water is condensed over its lower surface. The values of dry bulb temperature and wet bulb temperature are measured through out the flow field for different values of flow velocity. In accordance heat and mass transfer coefficients are estimated for different operating conditions. A correlation formula of the problem parameters is proposed.
According to the obtained experimental results, the average heat and mass transfer coefficients increases by increasing velocity up to certain value of it then decreases for more increase of velocity.
Comparisons are made between present obtained experimental results and those results obtained in previous work, exhibit good agreement in the studied region.