Experimental and numerical investigation of the effect of mixing section length on direct-contact condensation in steam jet pump

The phenomenon of direct-contact condensation is very important with respect to several industrial applications, such as steam jet pumps, direct-contact heat exchangers and nuclear reactor cooling systems. The direct and quick transfer of heat, mass and momentum across the steam-water interface makes the physics of direct-contact condensation very complex. In this work the phenomenon of direct-contact condensation, in steam jet pump, has been studied experimentally and computationally. The length of the mixing section has been varied to study its effect on the phenomenon occurring there. The experimental and CFD results obtained in this study match closely with each other and indicate towards an important process known as interface vibration process in direct-contact condensation of steam jet pump. It was found that this process has a strong dependence on the length of mixing section and plays an important role in producing high suction at the water nozzle outlet. As a result we get efficient transfer of heat, mass and momentum across the steam-water interface in steam jet pump.