Condensation of mixtures in shell-and-tube condensers – the influence of important factors on calculation results

Paper in proceedings, 2002

Calculations are carried out for condensation of zeotropic refrigerant mixtures in a horizontal shell-andtube condenser, in order to investigate possible causes for overpredictions of heat transfer found when comparing with experimental data. A rigorous calculation method is compared to an earlier used simplified method, and to experimental measurements, but the rigorous method turns out to predict even better heat transfer. Mass transfer in the gas phase is calculated to reduce heat transfer up to 10%, but this effect cannot alone explain the overprediction of heat transfer. However, investigations show that the degree of mixing in the condensate layer is of great importance, and can be one important reason for the overprediction. Geometry data turned out to have only minor effects on calculation results.