Pool Boiling Heat Transfer in Dilute Water/Triethyleneglycol Solutions

Boiling of water/triethyleneglycol (TEG) binary solution has a wide-ranging application in the gas processing engineering. Design, operation and optimization of the involved boilers require accurate prediction of boiling heat transfer coefficient between surface and solution. In this investigation, nucleate pool boiling heat transfer coefficient has been experimentally measured on a horizontal rod heater in water/TEG binary solutions in a wide range of concentrations and heat fluxes under ambient condition. The present experimental data are correlated using major existing correlations. In addition a correlation is presented for prediction of pool boiling heat transfer for the system in which the vapour pressure of one component is negligible. This model is based on the mass transfer rate equation for prediction of the concentration at the bubble vapor/liquid interface. Based on this prediction, the temperature of the interface and accordingly, the boiling heat transfer coefficient could be straightforwardly calculated from the known concentration at the interface. It is shown that this simple model has sufficient accuracy and is acceptable below the medium concentrations of TEG when the vapor equilibrium concentration of TEG is almost zero. The presented model excludes any tuning parameter and requires very few physical properties to apply.