Direct Contact Condensers: A Comprehensive Review of Experimental and Numerical Investigations on Direct-Contact Condensation

Paweł Madejski (), Tomasz Kuś, Piotr Michalak, Michał Karch and Navaneethan Subramanian
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Paweł Madejski: Department of Power Systems and Environmental Protection Facilities, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics, AGH University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Tomasz Kuś: Department of Power Systems and Environmental Protection Facilities, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics, AGH University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Piotr Michalak: Department of Power Systems and Environmental Protection Facilities, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics, AGH University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Michał Karch: Department of Power Systems and Environmental Protection Facilities, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics, AGH University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Navaneethan Subramanian: Department of Power Systems and Environmental Protection Facilities, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics, AGH University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Krakow, Poland

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 24, 1-31

Abstract: Direct contact heat exchangers can be smaller, cheaper, and have simpler construction than the surface, shell, or tube heat exchangers of the same capacity and can operate in evaporation or condensation modes. For these reasons, they have many practical applications, such as water desalination, heat exchangers in power plants, or chemical engineering devices. This paper presents a comprehensive review of experimental and numerical activities focused on the research about direct condensation processes and testing direct contact condensers on the laboratory scale. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods and CFD solvers are the most popular tools in the numerical analysis of direct contact condensers because of the phenomenon’s complexity as multiphase turbulent flow with heat transfer and phase change. The presented and developed numerical models must be carefully calibrated and physically validated by experimental results. Results of the experimental campaign in the laboratory scale with the test rig and properly designed measuring apparatus can give detailed qualitative and quantitative results about direct contact condensation processes. In this case, the combination of these two approaches, numerical and experimental investigation, is the comprehensive method to deeply understand the direct contact condensation process.

Keywords: direct contact heat exchanger; direct contact condensation; CFD modeling; test rig (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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