Effects of uniform suction and surface tension on laminar filmwise condensation on a horizontal elliptical tube in a porous medium

This study performs a theoretical investigation into the problem of steady filmwise condensation flow over the external surface of a horizontal elliptical tube embedded in a porous medium with suction at the tube surface. The combined effects of the surface tension force and the gravitational force in driving the flow of the liquid film within the porous medium are modeled using Darcy's law. An effective suction function, f, is introduced to model the effect of the suction force at the wall on the thickness of the condensate film. The theoretical results presented in this study show that the heat transfer performance can be enhanced by applying a suction effect at the wall. Furthermore, it is shown that the surface tension force has a negligible effect on the mean Nusselt number.