Experimental study on the direct contact condensation of the steam jet in subcooled water flow in a rectangular channel: Flow patterns and flow field

• The DCC of steam jet in water with certain velocity was experimentally investigated.
• Two unstable flow patterns and two stable flow patterns were observed.
• The flow parameters distributions along the channel were measured without destroying the flow field.
• The relationship between the flow patterns and flow field parameters was discussed.

Direct contact condensation (DCC) of steam jet in subcooled water flow in a channel was experimentally studied. The main inlet parameters, including steam mass flux, water mass flux and water temperature were tested in the ranges of 200–600 kg/(m2 s), 7–18 × 103 kg/(m2 s), 288–333 K, respectively. Two unstable flow patterns and two stable flow patterns were observed via visualization window by a high speed camera. The flow patterns were determined by steam mass flux, water mass flux and water temperature, and the relationship between flow patterns and flow field parameters was discussed. The results indicated that whether pressure or temperature distributions on the bottom wall of channel could represent different flow patterns. And the position of pressure peak on the bottom wall could almost represent the condensation length. The upper wall pressure distributions were mainly dependent on steam and water mass flux; and the upper wall temperature distributions were affected by the three main inlet parameters. Moreover, the bottom wall pressure and temperature distributions of different unstable flow patterns had similar characteristics while those of stable flow patterns were affected by shock and expansion waves. The underlying cause of transition between different flow patterns under different inlet parameters was reflected and discussed based on pressure distributions.