Non-equilibrium condensation of wet steam flow within high-pressure thermo-compressor

•With the increase of motive steam pressure the mass fraction of liquid phase increases.•The effects of slip velocity become more important in high-pressure motive steam.•During condensation liquid temperature become larger than that of vapor phase.•The second nucleation phenomenon occurs at the mixing region of thermo-compressor.•Droplet production in secondary nucleation process in larger than that of primary one.

In this study unsteady supersonic flow of wet steam through high-pressure thermo-compressor with non-equilibrium homogeneous condensation has been presented. Two-fluid multiphase flow formulations are applied for the simulation of unsteady, supersonic and compressible flow of wet steam. Non-equilibrium homogeneous condensation of we steam flow with considering suitable equations of state for both vapor and liquid is simulated via in-house CFD code. Results have shown that the proposed two-fluid multiphase approach can predict the non-equilibrium condensation of wet steam within high-pressure thermo-compressor. Quantitative validations of the calculated parameters with industrial data are presented. The validation of the in-house CFD code proves its usefulness for the modeling of steam condensing flows within high-pressure thermo-compressors which are very practical in desalination industry.