Review: Condensation regime maps of steam submerged jet condensation

Steam submerged jet condensation has been widely used in many industry applications, especially in nuclear engineering. Since the heat and mass transfer varies with the condensation patterns as well as steam-water interface shapes, the identification and classification of the condensation regime is indispensable to conduct thermal-hydraulic analyses and to select adequate constitutive equations such as heat transfer coefficient. Different definitions and criteria have been used to classify the steam jet condensation regime. Due to the different transition criteria of condensation regime and multi-parameters' effect, existing condensation regime maps do not agree each other. In this paper, unified criteria and definitions for each regimes have been proposed based on the dynamic behavior and geometrical shape of steam-water interface. The re-classified condensation regimes are chugging regime, hemispherical bubble oscillation regime, condensation oscillation regime, stable condensation regime and steam escape regime. The existing analytical model, empirical correlations and empirical map developed under different test section designs and test conditions failed to predict the existing experimental condensation regime transition boundaries. The discrepancy in the transition boundaries among existing experimental data is significant due partly to the subjective classification and complicated dependence on multiple parameters. Further efforts on both analytical and experimental researches are encouraged in the future.