A Review of Quantitative Characterization of Phase Interface Dynamics and Optimization of Heat Transfer Modeling in Direct Contact Heat Transfer

Mingjian Wang, Jianxin Xu (), Shibo Wang and Hua Wang
Additional contact information
Mingjian Wang: Faulty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China
Jianxin Xu: Faulty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China
Shibo Wang: State Key Laboratory of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resources Clean Utilization, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China
Hua Wang: Faulty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 9, 1-22

Abstract: Direct contact heat transfer as an efficient heat recovery method. It is used in the fields of waste heat recovery, nuclear engineering, desalination, and metallurgy. This study examined two key issues of the direct contact heat transfer process: difficulty in accurately characterizing the dynamics of the flow field–phase interface; and difficulty in coupling the complex multiphysics fields involved in direct contact heat transfer. This paper systematically reviews the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics and quantitative characterization methods of bubble dynamics in direct contact heat transfer processes, with an in-depth discussion on theoretical modeling approaches and experimental validation strategies for coupled heat and mass transfer mechanisms within multiphase flow systems. An interesting phenomenon was found in this study. Many scholars have focused their research on optimizing the working conditions and structure of direct contact heat transfer in order to improve heat transfer efficiency. The non-equilibrium phenomenon between the two phases of direct contact heat transfer has not been thoroughly studied. The non-equilibrium phase transition model can deepen the understanding of the microscopic mechanism of interfacial energy exchange and phase transition dynamics in direct contact heat transfer by revealing the transient characteristics and non-equilibrium effects of heat and mass transfer at dynamic interfaces. Based on the findings above, three key directions are proposed to guide future research to inform the exploration of direct contact heat transfer mechanisms in future work: 1 dynamic analysis of multi-scale spatio-temporal coupling mechanisms, 2 accurate quantification of unsteady interfacial heat transfer processes, and 3 synergistic integration of intelligent optimization algorithms with experimental datasets.

Keywords: direct heat transfer; quantification of phase space distribution; non-equilibrium phase model (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: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/9/2318/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/9/2318/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:9:p:2318-:d:1647788

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().