A numerical study on growth mechanism of dropwise condensation

Mei, Maofei; Yu, Bo; Zou, Mingqing; Luo, Lingen

doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2011.01.002

Cited by 43 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…4, is 0.29±0.01. This value is comparable to the experimental values seen in literature, close to 1/3 [27,28]. For the theoretical second phase (phase II, Fig.…”

Section: Droplet Growth Ratesupporting

confidence: 91%

Design of an environment controlled dew tracking setup to emphasize the role of the relative humidity on breath figures dynamics

et al. 2018

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In polymer protection pieces, polycarbonate is often used for its transparency and its high impact resistance. However, when dew appears it degrades light transmission and thus transparency. To solve this problem, anti-fogging surfaces are developed. To further understand the dew formation in natural environment in order to design high efficiency anti-fogging surfaces on polycarbonate, a recently designed dew tracking setup giving dew pictures and a digital imaging procedure allowing reliable and highly accurate droplet measurements were developed. Thanks to this setup, dew formation conditions such as relative humidity level and air temperature can be chosen and studied. Particular attention is paid to the evolution of the number of droplets according to the relative humidity and how it explains the droplet growth rate. The influence of the relative humidity (RH) on the growth rate of non-coalescing dropwise condensation has already been observed. This paper is based on these existing results as a comparison to validate the experimental setup and the post-processing analysis. We shall also use the number of droplets to further explain the role of the RH on condensation dynamics. Moreover, by applying a light subcooling, the growth kinetics were slowed down in order to observe every characteristic phase in detail and even particular intermediate phases.

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“…4, is 0.29±0.01. This value is comparable to the experimental values seen in literature, close to 1/3 [27,28]. For the theoretical second phase (phase II, Fig.…”

Section: Droplet Growth Ratesupporting

confidence: 91%

Design of an environment controlled dew tracking setup to emphasize the role of the relative humidity on breath figures dynamics

et al. 2018

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“…Fortunately, in the steady-state dropwise condensation, both the maximum radius and the cumulative number of droplets fluctuate around certain average values with the growth time [21]. This means that Eq.…”

Section: Two Models For the Size Distribution Of The Large Dropletsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…After the first removal, the evolution of the droplet pattern reaches a statistically steady state and some quantities describing the features of dropwise condensation will fluctuate with growth time. Considerable efforts have been directed toward better understanding the time-averaged droplet size distribution in the steady-state dropwise condensation [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time-averaged droplet size distribution in steady-state dropwise condensation

Mei

Han

et al. 2015

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

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“…The dynamics of condensation of water vapor from air into liquid droplets on a surface has been extensively characterized [11]- [17]. Three stages of droplet growth may be identified [12], [14]- [16]: (i)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of relative humidity on dropwise condensation dynamics

Castillo

Weibel

Garimella

2015

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

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Dropwise condensation of atmospheric water vapor is important in multiple practical engineering applications. The roles of environmental factors and surface morphology/chemistry on the condensation dynamics need to be better understood to enable efficient water-harvesting, dehumidication, and other psychrometric processes. Systems and surfaces that may promote faster condensation rates and selfshedding of condensate droplets could lead to improved mass transfer rates and higher water yields in harvesting applications. In the present study, experiments are performed in a facility that allows visualization of the condensation process on a vertically oriented, hydrophobic surface at a controlled relative humidity and surface subcooling temperature. The distribution and growth of water droplets are monitored across the surface at different relative humidities (45%, 50%, 55%, and 70%) at a constant surface subcooling temperature of 15 °C below the ambient temperature. The droplet growth dynamics exhibits a strong dependency on relative humidity in the early stages during which there is a large population of small droplets on the surface and single droplet growth dominates over coalescence effects.At later stages, the dynamics of droplet growth is insensitive to relative humidity due to the dominance of coalescence effects. The overall volumetric rate of condensation on the surface is also assessed as a function of time and ambient relative humidity. Low relative humidity conditions not only slow the absolute rate of condensation, but also prolong an initial transient regime over which the condensation rate remains significantly below the steady-state value.Keywords: dropwise condensation, relative humidity, growth dynamics, droplet distribution,

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A numerical study on growth mechanism of dropwise condensation

Cited by 43 publications

References 26 publications

Design of an environment controlled dew tracking setup to emphasize the role of the relative humidity on breath figures dynamics

Design of an environment controlled dew tracking setup to emphasize the role of the relative humidity on breath figures dynamics

Time-averaged droplet size distribution in steady-state dropwise condensation

The effect of relative humidity on dropwise condensation dynamics

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