Experimental study of falling film evaporation heat transfer outside horizontal tubes

The heat transfer process of falling film horizontal evaporation includes evaporation outside tubes and condensation inside tubes, the heat transfer coefficient of the former is about 50% of that of the latter. So the overall heat transfer coefficient is influenced mainly by the falling film evaporation outside tubes. An experimental study of falling film heat transfer outside horizontal tubes was carried out in order to show how the heat transfer coefficient is affected by different parameters such as flow density evaporation temperatures, temperature difference between wall and saturation water, and mass concentration of the seawater. Experiments were conducted using 14 mm outer diameter Al-brass tubes heated by internal electric heaters so that a uniform heat flux was generated on the outside surface of tubes. The results show that when flow density Γ varies between 0.013 kg/ms < Γ< 0.062 kg/ms, the heat stransfer coefficient of falling film evaporation outside horizontal tubes h increases with the increase in liquid feeding, evaporation boiling temperature and heat flux. h also increases with an increase in distributor height, however there is a maximum height in which any height above this. Besides, the amount of non-condensing gas has significant effect on h. The difference of heat transfer coefficient between freshwater and seawater is small. These results contribute to further improving the performance of heat transfer process and developing new evaporator.